St Pat's march on in Leinster

It certainly wasn't the best football, but as ever when St Patrick's CS Navan are in action there is plenty of entertainment as the spectators sang their hearts out to inspire the players to a 1-12 to 0-2 Leinster Colleges SFC win over St Joseph's Rochfortbridge at Pairc Tailteann today.

At the end of the opening quarter there were no scores, but the couple of hundred St Pat's students who flocked to both the stand and the terrace warmed themselves with renditions of 'Merry Christmas everyone', 'Allez Allez', 'Super Pat's of Navan' and several other tunes.

A football match did threaten to break out in the third quarter when the Navan side stamped their obvious supremacy on the Westmeath school, but after St Pat's stretched their 1-1 to 0-1 half-time lead to 1-9 to 0-2 within 12 minutes of the restart the contest slipped back to mediocrity and musical entertainment took over again.

Even as the smell of feet came and went with the 'shoes off for St Pat's' song it did little to inspire those on the field for the remainder, but in truth St Pat's were never seriously troubled.

Even when St Jospeh's enjoyed some decent spells in the opening period their shooting was well wide of the mark and their return of six wides in the first 30 minutes is a reflection of how hard they work, but how poor they were.

St Patrick's also struggled to find any fluency in that opening half and after a barren opening quarter they had one wide on the board compared to their opponents four.

Within 30 seconds of the water break an incisive move involving David McKeever and Andrew Canavan set Ciaran Cox through on goals, but the Walterstown player picked the ball off the ground before firing to the net and the referee quickly silenced the joyous St Pat's supporters.

However the decibel levels did rise again moments later and this time they stood as McKeever's tame shot was comfortably saved by Stephen McNevin, but then McKeever hassled McNevin into a mistake before tapping the ball to the net.

That score suggested an avalanche and when St Jospeh's replied impressively through Michael Doherty the game looked set to move through the gears, but alas McKeever was the only one to add to the tally with a point as St Pat's took a 1-1 to 0-1 lead to the dressing room.

With words of encouragement ringing in their ears and songs of praise flowing from the stand St Pat's started the second-half in blistering fashion with Con Smith stretching their lead within 25 seconds. John Finnerty added another point when he won the subsequent kick-out and there wasn't 90 seconds on the second-half clock when Matthew Cully pointed to make it 1-4 to 0-1.

Smith added a pointed free in the 36th minute and after Oisin Coogan replied with a converted free for St Joseph's St Pat's stretched further ahead with Louis Collins, McKeever, Smith and Cox making it 1-9 to 0-2 at the second water break.

With the win in the bag the third quarter intensity was replaced with the poor fare that had gone before.

Tadhg Martin took advantage of an Eoghan Kenny error to stretch St Pat's lead and after the referee advised St Joseph's to substitute Liam Daly, St Pat's kept the scoreboard ticking over with substitutes Jack Owens and Mark Rennicks completing the tally to send the happy St Pat's students back to school happy, but manager Colm O'Rourke and his selectors back to the drawing board to figure why their side only performed near their best for 12 minutes.

SCORERS

St Patrick's CS - David McKeever 1-2; Con Smith 0-3 one free; John Finnerty 0-1; Matthew Cully 0-1; Louis Collins 0-1; Ciaran Cox 0-1; Tadhg Martyn 0-1; Jack Owens 0-1; Mark Rennicks 0-1.

St Joseph's - Michael Doherty 0-1; Oisin Coogan 0-1 free.

TEAMS

St Patrick's CS Navan - Adam Nevin (Simonstown); Colm O'Toole (Navan O'Mahonys), Thomas Donegan (Wolfe Tones), Cormac Carolan (Seneschalstown); Tom McDonnell (Seneschalstown), John Finnerty (Skryne), Louis Collins (Navan O'Mahonys); Matthew Cully (Bective), Eoin Donegan (Wolfe Tones); Tadhg Martyn (Slane), David McKeever (Simonstown), Eoghan Nugent (Navan O'Mahonys); Ciaran Cox (Walterstown), Con Smith (Bective), Andrew Canavan (Skryne). Subs - Mark Rennicks (Simonstown) for Canavan, Cian Caldwell (Simonstown) for Canavan both half-time, Ciaran O'Dea (Castletown) for E Donegan 43 mins, Eoghan McCague (Walterstown) for Carolan 49m, Neil McGinley (Walterstown) for Smith 56m, Jack Owens (Seneschalstown) for Cully 56m, Hugo Fitzherbert (Navan O'Mahonys) for Cox 57m.

St Joseph's Rochfortbridge - Stephen McNevin; Eoghan Kenny, Cormac Eighan, Jack Quinn; Luke Leacy, Sean Carroll, Colin McGee; Liam Daly, Alex Ajeigbe; Tadhg Kenny, Eamonn Cunneen, Oisin Coogan; Ross Kellaghan, Michael Doherty, Finnian Carroll. Subs - Tiernan Fallon for Kellaghan 38 mins, James Staunton for Carroll 46m, Jack Cannon for Kenny 49m, Jake Quinn for Daly 57m.

Referee - David Sweeney (Dublin).