Red-hot sheridan edges fingal past Louth

FINGAL 0-12 LOUTH 0-10

JM Sheridan came to the rescue of Fingal at Swords as the north Dublin divisional side marked their return to the hurling championship’s third tier after a three-year absence with victory over 14-man Louth.

Despite losing centre-forward Nigel Stanley to a straight red card on 47 minutes, the Wee County held a slender lead (0-10 to 0-9) three minutes from time, but a trio of placed balls by corner-forward Sheridan sealed a semi-final berth.

Andrew Richardson split the posts for a second time in between a Paddy Lynch brace to offer Fingal a one-point interval lead (0-6 to 0-5), before Lynch and David Mahony singles either side of a Dave Smyth point left the game delicately poised.

The dismissal of Stanley for an off-the-ball incident seemed to give the upper hand to the home team heading into the closing stages and Sheridan was on hand to deliver the goods late on.

Scorers – Fingal: JM Sheridan 0-7 (5fs, 1 ’65’), A Richardson 0-2, D Smyth, D Kelly, C Foley 0-1 each. Louth: P Lynch 0-5 (1f, 1 ’65’), D Murphy 0-3 (1f), D Mahony 0-2.

FINGAL – C Harford; P Coyne, G Morris, A Morris; N Ring, D Vaughan, B Kelly; D Hattie, R McGarry; A Richardson, P Daly, P McAllister; JM Sheridan, D Smyth, I Furlong. Subs: D Kelly for McAllister (h-t), C Foley for Furlong (h-t), D Butterly for Richardson (59), N Feeney for B Kelly (71).

LOUTH – R O’Reilly; C Kerrigan, J Carter, A McCrave; R Byrne, C Hayes, C Ryan; J Condon, S Callan; D Kettle, N Stanley, G Rellis; D Mahony, D Murphy, P Lynch. Subs: S Maguire for Rellis (50), A Mackin for Condon (63).

REF – P Murphy (Carlow).