St. Joseph’s 2-13 Roche Emmets 2-14

Roche came from behind to muster their first victory at Cluskey Park since the 2008 Paddy Sheelan Cup final, overcoming St. Joseph’s by the minimum on Sunday afternoon.

Trailing until the final quarter, Paul Grier’s men displayed admirable passion and resilience to finish the stronger with Mark Byrne’s goal crucial to the triumph.

Despite playing with the aid of the breeze in the opening half, Emmets were second best and fortunate to be down by just three points at the interval – 1-10 to 0-10.

Craig Doherty bagged the Joe’s three-pointer and the Dromiskin/Darver charges spurned other opportunities, though, at the other end, Glen Stewart was cynically dragged to the ground after setting his mind on the net.

The tide, it must be said, began to turn in the winners’ favour with fresh legs on the field and, having stayed the course, Stewart’s goal had the deficit at just one – 1-12 to 1-11 – at the second half waterbreak.

Emmets were now hassling and harrying like men possessed and though dealt a sucker blow through Oisín McGuinness’s breakaway major, they stuck diligently to their task, a superb run by Dan O’Connell – and involving Stewart – ended with Byrne poking past Mark Neary.

Barry O’Hare was in top form up front, gathering every ball directed his way and the No14 showed dead-eyed accuracy from place kicks. Indeed, once he gave Roche the lead, with Shane Byrne following up with a notch of his own, the points looked set for Rathduff.

Joe’s halved the lead subsequently but despite loading on the pressure, they were unable to summon a leveller as Roche emerged unscathed.

St. Joseph’s: Mark Neary; Liam O’Leary, Ben Mulligan, Aidan Kieran; Ben Collier, Killian Staunton, Gabriel Bell; Oisín McGuinness, Jack Mulligan; Conor Neary, Alan McKenna, Craig Doherty; Conall Smyth, Dáire Smyth, Alan Lynch

Subs: Shane McQuillan, David Kieran, Conal O’Hanlon

Roche: Jamie O’Hare; Joe Bishop, Harry O’Connell, Gerard Browne; Seán Dawe, James McDonnell, David Quigley; Glen Stewart (1-0), Dan O’Connell; James McArdle, Kevin Callaghan (0-3), Shane Byrne (0-2); Mark Byrne (1-1), Barry O’Hare (0-8), David O’Connell

Subs: Evin Quigley for J O’Hare, Caoimhín Reilly for D Quigley, Mark Reynolds for McArdle, Andrew Carroll for David O’Connell

Referee: Noel Hand