Cathal Shine is Athlone’s IT bright light

Athlone IT 1-15 Carlow 0-13

A dominant midfield performance from Roscommon's Cathal Shine was at the heart of Athlone IT's five-point victory over a disappointing Carlow side in last night's O'Byrne Cup tie played in heavy rain at the Carlow IT ground.

Carlow made a bright start and were 0-4 to 0-1 in front before conceding a levelling goal in the 14th minute from IT’s Adam Caul.

The home side went on to lead by 0-10 to 1-5 at half-time but lost their way as the students shot seven unanswered points at the start of the second half.

It took Carlow 22 minutes second half minutes to register a second half score, from right full forward Paul Broderick.

ATHLONE IT: G Connaughton; E Kearns, J Cassidy, J Donoghue; L Murphy, C O'Brien, T Mooney (0-1); C Duggan, C Shine (0-8, 0-7 frees); A Caul (1-1), K Martin (0-3), S Quinn; C Fitzgerald, J Dolan, A Coffey (0-2). Subs: J Mulligan for Fitzgerald (52 mins); P McGahern for O'Brien (57 mins); A Stone for Caul (61 mins); D O'Reilly for Quinn (68 mins).
CARLOW: A O'Brien; B J Molloy, M Curry, J O'Donoghue; B Kavanagh, D Kinsella, J Lowry (0-2); H Gahan, D Bambrick; S Doyle, B Murphy (0-1), J Kane; P Broderick (0-5, 0-2 frees), D Foley, S Kinsella (0-4, 0-3 frees). Subs: G Power for O'Donoghue (39 mins); D St Ledger (0-1 ,free) for Bambrick (45 mins); K Nolan for D Kinsella (47 mins).
Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).