Gordon inspires St Peter's

LEINSTER COLLEGES - St Peter's College 0-8 Knockbeg College1-3:MIDFIELDER JAMES Gordon inspired St Peter's College to a two-point victory over Knockbeg College in the Leinster Colleges senior football championship second-round tie at Power Park, Wexford, yesterday.

Knockbeg to an extent plotted their own downfall. They had full-back Mark O’Halloran sent off on a straight red after just 20 minutes, while in the second half, despite the tonic of a 33rd-minute goal, they failed to capitalise as the St Peter’s defence held out.

By the eighth minute St Peter’s had a 0-3 to 0-0 lead through points from Gordon, Mark O’Connor and Tomás Power.

Knockbeg had to wait until the 15th minute for their opening score, a Paul Kingston pointed free, but it was the home side who finished the half strongly adding points through Stephen Corrigan, Niall Murphy and AJ Lehane to lead 0-6 to 0-1 at the interval.

An Emmett Malone goal within three minutes of the restart handed Knockbeg a real lifeline, but they were unable to capitalise, only managing two further points through Stephen Attride and Paul Kingston, while Gordon had one in between for the homeside.

But with the St Peter’s defence holding firm in face of a late onslaught they managed one last attack for Niall Murphy to add the clinching point two minutes into additional time.

ST PETER'S COLLEGE:K Whelan; S Griffith, A Cash, K Hannigan; S Corrigan (0-1), C McCabe, F Hynes; D Wright, J Gordon (0-2); AJ Lehane (0-1), M O'Connor (0-1, free), N Murphy (0-2); C Kavanagh, G Murphy, T Power (0-1, free). Subs: B Wright for Power; B Hughes for Kavanagh; S Gubbins for Wright; E O'Byrne for G Murphy.

KNOCKBEG COLLEGE:P Brannagan; P Manning, M O'Halloran, E O'Hora; P McEvoy, K Ryan, D Dunne; E Malone (1-0), S Stapleton; T Daly, R Power, S Attride (0-1); D O'Connor, M Delaney, P Kingston (0-2, one free). Subs: P Doyle for Dunne; B Kelly for Delaney.

Referee:E Craul (Wicklow).