St Pats 1-17 Waterville 1-14

St Pats took all the points at stake in this fast-paced game played on Saturday evening in

Blennerville, in which Waterville's Stephen O'Dwyer scored 1-8, five of which were frees, but it still wasn't good enough to win against a very determined and energised St Pats team.

The home side registered the first point of the match when Tommy Lynch pointed as early as the first minute, following intelligent play from Liam Poff knocking the ball towards the path of Gary Savage, who spotted Tommy running off his shoulder.  Waterville levelled matters two minutes later from Barry O'Dwyer scoring from close range.  St Pats scored three points without reply within six minutes, with Stephen O'Dwyer reducing the deficit to a solitary point with a point from play and a free.   St Pat's goalie, Paudie Bailey was called into action, denying Stephen a goal after he rounded a defender and unleashed a shot that was easily dealt with.  This seemed to galvanise the Pats, as they registered three straight points, best of which was from Breandáin Savage, who scored a point with his back to goal from around the 20 metre line.  The home side were winning lots of possession especially in the middle of the field, where Liam Poff and Liam O'Sullivan were controlling matters and bringing the forwards into play, with the mercurial David O'Callaghan giving the away side's

defence a torrid time.  St Pats outscored Waterville to take a 0-9 to 0-5 lead to the break.

Waterville came out strongly in the second half and registered the first two points through a free from Alan O'Shea and a point from play scored by their dangerman, Stephen O'Dwyer, within the first three minutes.  With the crowd behind the home team, St Pats had the green flag raised through a well worked goal scored by Breandáin Savage, after an array of passes between the forward line to further stretch their lead to five points.  The home side took the game by the scruff of the neck by chasing after every ball and closing down their opponents and, at one stage, had centre-forward, Brendan Poff, making a vital block deep into his half.   With this comfortable lead, St Pats dropped their concentration level momentarily and paid for it, when Stephen O'Dwyer burst through the defence unchallenged and released a left footed shot, for which St Pats' Paudi Bailey had no response. The home side kept their heads as Waterville went in search of another goal, but

this worked to their disadvantage as they left their defence wide open, which David O'Callaghan took advantage of, by sending a low ball towards the path of Gary Savage,    who flicked it to his hand and pointed in what was to be the last point of the game.

St Pats: Paudie Bailey, Tommy O'Connor, Kieran O'Sullivan, Kieran Dwyer, Luke Mulligan    (0-2), Kevin O'Shea, Jeffrey Foley, Liam O'Sullivan, Liam Poff, David O'Callaghan (0-7,3f), Brendan Poff (0-2), Tommy Lynch (0-1), Brandon Boyle, Breandáin Savage (1-02), Gary Savage (0-3).  Subs: Brian Murphy for Tommy Lynch, Eoin Sayers on for Tommy O'Connor, Eoin Greaney for Breandáin Savage.

Waterville:   Seamus O'Shea, Micheál Cronin, Daniel O'Dwyer, Micheál Curran, Oran Clifford, Fíonan Clifford, Alan O'Dwyer, Cormac O'Sullivan (0-1), Gearóid O'Sullivan, Alan O'Shea      (0-3, 2f), Fergal Cronin, Sam O'Dwyer (0-1), Barry O'Dwyer (0-1), Stephen O'Dwyer (1-08,5f), Patrick Curran.  Subs: Cillian Clifford for Fergal Cronin, Mike O'Shea for Micheál Curran, Keith Moran.