Cortown 3-19 St Pauls 4-10

It took 80+ minutes, seven goals and 36 scores but Cortown eventually got the better of St Paul's to seal their passage through to the Premier 8 Final and a date with Nobber next Saturday.

This was the sides second meeting in as many weeks with Clonee men travelling in much bigger numbers this time and putting in a huge performance to push the home side all the way.

St Pauls took an early lead with the Bomber Full Forward clipping over. Cortown immediately responded with an excellent Tommy Smith effort.

The Clonee men struck their first goal despite the best attempts of Butch Casserly to keep out the initial shot on goal.

The hosts were extremely wasteful for the next 10 minutes but bagsman Conor Whelan inevitably supplied the goods. Tommy Smith's point attempt dropped well-short but poacher supreme Whelan was lurking to flick in his fourth goal of this Premier Championship campaign.

The sides exchanged scores with Smith equalising for Martin McGovern's men with a superb curled effort. The lead score arrived with Jack Henry finishing off a fine team move involving Decky Coyne and Donegal's Anto Boyle.

The goal-hungry Flathouse emphatically finished their second goal to take a three point advantage. The game entered a serious lull with no score for 12 minutes but Smith tagged on a vital score for the Cortown men on the verge of half time to trim the deficit to two, 1-5 to 2-4.

A Tommy Smith implosion at half-time was greeted with a Cortown goal straight after the break. A speculative Smith effort was kept alive by Ivor O'Halloran with the prolific Whelan pouncing to fire home his second of the day.

The purple patch continued with the Faithful's Kevin McGuinness pointing a free and Smith on target with the ball bouncing in front of the Saints keeper and over.

Pauls replied with a couple of quickfire scores to get back within one, 2-7 to 2-6. Elliot Reilly opened back up a two point lead for the men in yellow with a right footed shot.

A brilliant restart from Casserly to McGuinness got Josh Keating off and running. He slipped to Whelan who applied the delicate finish to give the home side a three point buffer at the three quarter mark, 2-09 to 2-06.

A terrific pluck from Hightower Coyne from a Paul's restart with Smith punting over. A catastrophe at the back resulted in the visitors tapping into an empty net to make it a one-point game entering the final 10 minutes. However a black card to three Paul's midfielder gave Reilly the opportunity to pop over another.

McGuiness reestablished the three point gap with a free. Smith did likewise moments after to give Cortown some breathing space.

The side in blue hit back with a point but Whelan picked off another with an instinctive shot. There was no quit in the Paul's who reduced the margin to three again and with the final act of the contest bundled home the equaliser to send the game into overtime - 2-14 to 4-8 in an all-time classic.

Cortown registered the first score of extra time a free which was won and converted with Henry. Pauls replied in kind with a free of their own to level things once again. A smartly taken '45 from John McGearty to Smith resulted in a point to get Cortown back in front and big Jack Henry cushioned over another fine point seconds later. Cortown lead by two at half time in Extra Time, 2-17 to 4-9.

Cortown ran through for a superb breakaway goal with Smith offloading to Henry who fired low into the bottom corner.

Reilly was then fouled after coming in from the left with Martin Dawson awarding a penalty. McGuinness stepped up but his penalty landed closer to the church than the net and the opportunity spurned.

It mattered not despite Pauls reducing the gap to four because a long range brace of scores from Smith and Conor Mulroe with his thirteenth shot of the day helped to put the icing on the cake.

Cortown: Butch Casserly; Luke Carberry, Daragh O'Halloran, Skipper Coyne; Josh Keating, John McGearty, Elliot Reilly (0-2); Decky Coyne, Kevin McGuinness (0-3 frees); Conor Mulroe (0-1), Tommy Smith (0-7), Anthony Boyle; Conor Whelan (2-2), Jack Henry (1-4, one free), Ivor O'Halloran.

Subs: Stephen Fitzmaurice for Reilly, Micheal Reilly for Boyle, Boyle for M Reilly, Justin Reilly for E Reilly.

Referee: Martin Dawson (St Michael's)

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