Cortown 0-12 St Mary's 3-11

Played in horrendous conditions on Thursday evening, St Mary's put some daylight between themselves and Cortown with a hard winned victory.

Both sides butchered excellent goal opportunities in a tense opening. Jack Finnegan, fresh from the Edinburgh half marathon last weekend, came to Cortown's rescue whilst King of the Sheep Kevin Muldoon denied by the post with a rasping shot.

The hosts did hit the front thanks to the rejuvenated Stephen Fitzmaurice with a monster two-pointer from a Fitzmaurice after Josh Keating was fouled. The same sequence occurred moments later with Fitzmaurice again doing the needful.

The Donore side sprung into life suddenly with Veteran campaigner James Lynch firing over a hatrick of quickfire points to restore parity.

Martin McGovern's charges responded with Elliot Reilly and Jake Coyne on target. Mary's stole in for their opening goal of the night after referee Peter O'Halloran overruled his umpire down the other end - Sean Nulty with the emphatic finish.

The gutsy home side kept at it though and with the inspired Fitzmaurice, fresh from his warm weather training camp in superb form, Cortown were back in front.

A Lynch free levelled and Camin Hughes popped the visitors in front with a neat score to give Rob Victory's side a narrow 1-5 to 0-7 half-time lead.

With the first attack of the second half Mary's ran in their second goal of the evening which quickly followed by a point to make it a five point game in the blink of an eye.

Hughes nailed a two-point free and Kyle McKeown stung the palms of Lynch en-route to a point.

Fitzmaurice's quick tap and go resulted in a maiden second half score for the home team. Mary's dominance continued however with a Hughes 45'.

A powerful cross/shot from Ciaran Keating was deflected over by a touch from Reilly on the way through to make it 0-9 to 2-10 at the three-quarter mark.

Coyne lofted over after a messy passage of play to reduce the arrears to five but Nulty second goal put an end to it with just over 10 minutes left.

The game fizzled out thereafter in testing conditions with the sides exchanging frees late on but Cortown could get no closer as the Newgrange outfit held out for a deserved win.

Cortown: Jack Finnegan; Gavin Clarke, John Reilly, Josh Keating; Conor Smith, Theo Staunton, Charlie Smith; Elliot Reilly (0-2), Ciaran Keating; Kevin Muldoon, John McGearty, Markuss Watters; Conor Mulroe, Stephen Fitzmaurice (0-8 one tpf four fs), Jake Coyne (0-2).

Subs: Ivor O'Halloran for J Keating, Kevin McGuinness for Watters, Declan Clarke for Mulroe.

Referee: Peter O'Halloran (Drumconrath)

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