St Peters maintained their unbeaten run in this years Intermediate hurling championship with a convincing win over Wolf Tones this afternoon in Boardsmill. The game was delayed by one hour due to the unknown whereabouts of the appointed referee, but after a few phone calls the great Martin Ennis arrived to take control of the game. While the Black and Amber team put up a fine score by the final whistle it was still a game where they struggled to take fire.

Playing with the wind in the first half the Dunboyne team raced into a 0:04 to 0:00 lead within the first 8 minutes, the scores coming from Sean Quigley, Jason Gleeson (f), Simon Cunningham and the pick of the bunch from Eoghan Cormack after he intercepted a clearance from the Tones defence and punished. The Purple and Gold responded with 2 points (1f) before Quigs and Alan Watters added 2 more for the Dunboyne's by the 19th minute, leaving the scoreline on Dunboyne 0:06 Wolfe Tones 0:02. The final ten minutes of the half were far from free flowing hurling and both sides struggled to dominate the possession stakes, but St Peters outscored their opponents by 3 points to 2, with scores from Quigs and Gleeson (f) again, and with Fergal Chawke getting a fine score on the half hour.

Score at Half Time: Dunboyne 0:09 (2f) Wolfe Tones 0:04 (2f).

The second half was only 2 minutes old when Gleeson burst through for the first goal of the game which helped open up a sizeable gap between the 2 teams. Dunboyne's case was further helped 3 minutes later when Wolfe Tones had to play the remainder of the game with 14 men after a straight red card delivered to their wing forward. Over the next 5 minutes Dunboyne scored 1:04 versus the oppositions 2 points, with Gleeson (3, 2f) and Sean Cregan getting the points while Quigs broke through for the teams second goal of the game. Score on 15 mins of the second half: Dunboyne 2:13 Wolfe Tones 0:06.

Daniel Boyd and Quigs nailed 2 quick fire points as the game entered the final quarter while Alan Waters, who had his best 60 minutes of the season, and McCormack got their second points of the game soon after. In the 27th minute Boyd went on another strong run and cut in from the right, took 3 defenders with him and somehow the ball ended up falling at Timmy O'Connors feet who had the simplest of tasks to whip the ball into the net for his first touch shortly after being introduced. Tones responded with a goal of their own 2 minutes later with Liam Davis, now between the sticks for Dunboyne, making a great reflex save only to parry the ball to a tones attacker who then gave Davis no chance. As the game entered injury time Fergal Chawke added his second point of the game to leave the score at the final whistle: Dunboyne 3:18 (4f) Wolfe Tones 1:08 (4f).

As mentioned earlier it was game that never took fire and possibly the hanging around for the 60 minutes affected the performance, particularly in the first half. Never the less a win is a win, and with 3:14 from play across 9 different scorers, it must have been somewhat pleasing to the management team. With 6 points now on the board by my calculation it guarantees them making the knock out stages with 2 games remaining. The next game will be a much stiffer challenge when they come face to face with the team that beat them, quiet convincingly it has to be said, in the Billy Byrne Cup Final replay a couple of months back - Rathmolyon. This will be a great test to see where the lads are as they enter the last 2 group games. With the Juniors also winning last night it was a great weekend for the club.

Team: Paul Graves; Conor Deering; Evan McCrudden; Ciaran Lonergan; Alan Watters (0:02); Diarmuid Delaney; James Lonergan; Fergal Chawke (0:02); Eoghan McCormack (0:02); Simon Cunningham (0:01); Daniel Boyd (0:01); Sean Quigley (1:04); Jason Gleeson (1:05, 4f); Sean Cregan (0:01); Niall Smith; Bench: Ger Murphy (For Conor Deering); Timmy O'Connor (1:00) (for Jason Quigley); Daragh Callanan (for Simon Cunningham); Liam Davis (for James Lonergan);