GAA | Geraldines move out of the bottom three after hard-fought win over Pat’s

Division One League | Geraldines 1–13 St Patrick’s 0–13

The Geraldines pulled clear of the bottom three in Division One with a hard-earned three-point victory over St Patrick’s in Haggardstown on Tuesday night.

The visitors opened in fine fashion with Darragh Lafferty hitting back to back early scores. That was followed by Paddy Keenan hitting a brace before corner forward Glen Trainor opened the Geraldines’ account in the seventh minute.

Trainor doubled his tally before Shane O’Hanlon got the home side’s third point in the 12th minute and the Gers should have moved in front but Trainor saw a good chance fly wide of the upright.

Former Louth minor captain Matt Corcoran did find the net with a well taken left footed drive in the 14th minute, though, moving Eamon McEneaney’s side 1–3 to 0–4 ahead.

The hosts were forced to defend after that with Nicky Mackin and Paul Clarke both doing their bit but Aidan McCann and Ray Finnegan both fired over to tie the match before Keenan put the Lordship side back in front with a free.

Jim McEneaney levelled the score with a fine long range point with six minutes to go to the break just after Pat’s lost Ray Finnegan to a black card.

It was the home side who finished the half strongly with McEneaney and Stephen Reidy giving them a two-point lead at the break, 1–6 to 0–7.

The first score of the second half went to Trainor, who helped himself to his third of the match but a McCann point reduced it to just two again.

The Haggardstown outfit then took control of the game, scoring six of the next seven points to move seven-up with 15 minutes left on the clock.

McEneaney, Arrowsmith and Shane O’Hanlon hit the first batch of three before Daniel Rice intervened but the Gers responded with three more from McEneaney — a 45 — Shane O’Hanlon and Robbie Lynch, 1–13 to 0–9.

Substitute Karl White cut it to six with as many minutes to go before Geraldines goalkeeper Sean McEneaney denied what looked like a certain goal for McCann to edge the hosts towards the win.

Pat’s needed a goal to salvage something from the game but a point from Darren O’Hanlon was all they could muster as the Gers held on for a well-deserved win to escape the bottom three.

GERALDINES: Sean McEneaney, Kevin Pepper, Nicky Mackin, Paul Clarke, Tiarnan Hand, Gerard Hoey, Jack Traynor, Stephen Reidy (0–1 ) Paddy Hoey, Matt Corcoran (1–0), Shane O’Hanlon (0–3), Glen Trainor (0–3), Sean Thornton, Jim McEneaney (0–4), Josh Arrowsmith (0–1). Subs: Robbie Lynch (0–1) for T Hand, Andy Lynch for N Mackin (BC).

ST PATRICK’S: Sean Connor, Cormac Barry, Darren O’Hanlon (0–1), Patrick Kirk, Kevin White, Ray Finnegan (0–1), Owen Zamboglou, Paddy Keenan (0–3), Thomas McCann, Evan White, Conor Grogan, Aidan McCann (0–3), Patrick Lynch, Darragh Lafferty (0–2), Daniel Rice (0–1). Subs: Karl White (0–3) for R Finnegan (BC), Cian Duffy for O Zamboglou, Colin McCann for P Kirk, Stephen Toner for C Grogan.