AIB Leinster Club SFC Quarter-Final

St Loman's 1-20 Emmet Óg, Killoe 1-10

By Gerry Buckley at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park

All Star nominee Ronan O’Toole’s brilliant 12th minute goal propelled St Loman’s to a very comfortable win against a disappointing Killoe side at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.

The pre-match showers had disappeared and conditions were pretty much ideal for football. It was the Westmeath champions who were straight out of the traps and, after Longford native Peter Foy was wide from an early goal chance, Danny McCartan (a mark) and Denis McGoldrick (open play) traded points before St Loman’s took complete control of the game in virtually very position.

Points from Sam McCartan, John Heslin (a free), Danny McCartan and Ronan O’Toole preceded a wonderful individual goal from the latter in the 12th minute. Further points ensued via Sam McCartan, Shane Dempsey, Heslin (another free), Sam McCartan (a ‘45’, after his brother Danny had been denied a goal), and Dempsey again.

Fine points from Paddy Moran and Mickey Quinn briefly stemmed the tide for Killoe, managed by former St Loman’s manager Luke Dempsey, but with Heslin spraying the ball around delightfully, Paddy Dowdall’s men increased their lead before the break when Shane Dempsey completed his hat-trick of points to leave the Lake County men ahead by 1-11 to 0-3 at the break.

In truth, all the Mullingar men needed to do in the second half was to keep the scoreboard ticking over, and this they did at their ease, starting with another Dempsey point after 50 seconds.

Heslin continued to dictate the tempo, and he also kicked a great left-footed point from play in the 37th minute. Their lead was marginally down from the interval to 10 points (1-14 to 0-7) at the end of the third quarter.

Emmet Óg’s woes were compounded by the dismissal of sub Cian Dooner in the 49th minute (a black card to follow his earlier yellow). To their credit, they continued to plug away and were rewarded with a fine goal from Danny Mimnagh in the 55th minute to leave them trailing by 1-18 to 1-08.

The side's equally shared four late points. Late on Emmet Óg substitute Colm Coyle was red-carded.

Scorers for St Loman’s: R O’Toole 1-2, J Heslin (4fs), S Dempsey (1m) 0-5 each, S McCartan 0-4 (1 ‘45’), D McCartan 0-3 (one free, one mark), S Flanagan 0-1.

Scorers for Emmet Óg: D Mimnagh 1-1 (1 '45'), M Hughes 0-3 (1f), P Kiernan, D McGoldrick, M Quinn, P Moran, C Coyle, R McGoldrick 0-1 each.

St Loman’s, Mullingar: J Daly; E Hogan, D O’Keeffe, O Hogan; J Geoghegan, D Whelan, E Gaffney; S Flanagan, J Heslin; P Foy, S McCartan, K Regan; D McCartan, R O’Toole, S Dempsey.

Subs: K Reilly for Foy (41), F Ayorinde for Flanagan (50), T Graham for Regan (50), R Jones for Gaffney (58), G Grehan for O Hogan (58).

Emmet Óg, Killoe: M Hughes; N Farrelly, L Hughes, E Farrelly; G Farrelly, R Moffett, C Farrelly; P Kiernan, R Keogh; D McGoldrick, M Quinn, E Keogh; D Mimnagh, M Hughes, P Moran.

Subs: C Coyle for McGoldrick (19), R McGoldrick for N Farrelly (h-t), C Dooner for E Keogh (33), S Clarke for R Keogh (41), C Donohoe for C Farrelly (54).

Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).