ST FECHINS 4-14

KNOCKBRIDGE 0-12

St Fechins retained their Louth Senior Hurling Championship crown with a comfortable victory over Knockbridge at Dowdallshill on Sunday afternoon.

The reigning champions had too much quality and desire on the day as they were always in charge of this encounter to ensure they held on to the Paddy Kelly Cup for at least another 12 months.

The winners were inspired by a Man of the Match display from corner forward Michael Ryan who contributed a total of 2-3. Both his goals came at vital times in the second half as each time they snuffed out the threat of a Knockbridge comeback.

Ryan was ably assisted by Paddy Lynch whose accuracy from frees ensured his side maintained their lead from the early exchanges as the finished with a personal tally of ten points.

The game began with Knockbridge opening the scoring through a Robert Wallace point, but their joy was short lived as the Fechins responded with a goal from Seaghan Connelly, and two points from Lynch increased the gap to 1-2 to 0-1 after ten minutes.

By that stage their side were well on top in this game and they retained that control until the break. Points from Lynch and Ryan kept them ahead although Knockbridge hit back through Shane Fennell and Wallace to trail by 1-7 to 0-5 at the break.

Knockbridge raised hopes of a revival when Robert Wallace landed the first point of the second half but again the Fechins response was swift and decisive. Connelly and Ryan claimed points before Ryan struck his first goal of the game to put his side 2-9 to 0-6 on 34 minutes.

Despite the setback, Knockbridge refused to lie down and successive points from Wallace, Gerard McKeown and Fennell cut the gap back to six points. A goal at that stage would have changed the game, but unfortunately for Knockbridge, it came at the other end.

Once again it was Ryan who found the net to open up a nine point gap with 15 minutes to play, and after that there was no way back for the red-and-whites.

The Fechins cruised through the last quarter and added a further goal from David Stephenson while Knockbridge finished with 14 men following the dismissal of Stephen Kettle.

ST FECHINS: Stephen Hackett; Cormac McAuley, Darren McDonnell, Robert Moynagh; Micheal Byrne, Cathal Ryan, Oisin Byrne; Paddy McCormack, Donal Ryan; Niall Devlin, Vincent Hynes, Paddy Lynch 0-10; Michael Ryan 2-3, Seaghan Connelly 1-1, David Stephenson 1-0. Subs: Barry Devlin, Caoimhin Seery, Brian Stephenson, Conor Matthews, Paul Matthews.

KNOCKBRIDGE: Shane Kerrigan; Stephen Kettle, David Dean, Mark Wallace; Conor Kerrigan, Ricky McKeown, Adrian Wallace; David Kettle, Gerard McKeown 0-1; Robert Wallace 0-4, James Costello, Kevin McNally; Gavin Kane, Gavin Kerrigan 0-1, Shane Fennell 0-4. Subs: Kevin Hearty 0-2, Andrew Smith, Liam Molloy, Brian Dunne.

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