London champions Brothers Pearse put up a far better performance than the scoreline suggests, but a lack of fitness proved to be their undoing in yesterday's quarter-final against Ballygalget of Down at Ruislip.
The visitors, who led by 0-5 to 0-2 at the interval, failed to translate their superiority into scores with their clinching goal by Martin Coulter coming two minutes from the end.
Ballygalget's success stemmed from centrefield, where Brendan Gallagher and Paddy Monan were in complete control.
Despite their comfortable win, Ballygalget failed to impress and improvement is called for if they hope to make further progress in the competition.
Lack of competitive match practice contributed to Brothers Pearse's defeat, with the home team kept in the game through a string of superb saves by goalkeeper Ray Walsh.
Ballygalget: G Clarke; L Clarke, K Coulter, E Dorrian; M Coulter sen, P Coulter, M Pucci; P Monan, B Gallagher; Paddy Savage, B Coulter (0-1), B Smith (0-1); M Coulter jun (1- 1), J McGrattan (0-5), Philbin Savage( 0-1).
Brothers Pearse: R Walsh; T Ryan, O Lee, J Egan; PJ Horgan, B Ryan, K Moroney; P Sheehan, D Browne; B Keane (0-1), A Heaney, E Monaghan (0-3), S Ivers, M Malone, C Browne. Sub: J Aldridge for S Ivers.
Referee: P Ahern (Carlow).
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