14-man St Peter's dethrone the champions

Who said St Peter's can't win tight games?

When the chips were down and their backs were to the wall the 14 Dunboyne men produced a performance of character, class and determination to down the champions Summerhill by 1-15 to 0-14 in a thriller at Pairc Tailteann today.

Reduced to 14 men in the 30th minute after Cathal Lacey picked up his second yellow card in the space of seven minutes for two high tackles on Adam McDonnell, st Peter's saw their three-point interval lead wiped out within six minutes of the restart.

With the breeze at their backs Summerhill looked odds on to continue the defence of their crown, but they didn't reckon on a performance of pure guts and hard work from St Peter's.

Inspired by a superb rearguard action, hard graft from Ronan Jones and a real leaders role by Donal Lenihan St Peter's dug deep and outwitted the champions.

Despite surrendering that half-time advantage St Peter's put themselves in a winning position with six minutes remaining when the outstanding Lenihan made it 0-14 to 0-12, but Summerhill stuck to their task.

Eeven though they had lost McDonnell to a black card they managed to get back on terms after he returned and as the clocked ticked into the fourth minute of injury-time extra-time was on the cards.

However fortune favoured the brave and St Peter's went for it.

Eoghan Frayne fouled Cathal Finn 47 metres out from mthe O'Mahonys goal. Summerhill must have felt sure it was outside of goalkeeper Liam Byrne's range, but the St Peter's numbner one arrowed the ball between the posts to give his side the lead once more.

Then 35 seconds over the announced three minutes of stoppage time Craig Lowndes got on the end of a fine move to palm the ball to the net for the insurance goal as St Peter's prevailed.

The thrilling conclusion made up for what was a mediocre contest that was more of an intriguing battle than an all-out belter.

St Peter's were the better side and were deserving of their victory and even though they got off to a slow start and fell behind to points from Conor Frayne and Bartry Dardis they recovered well every time the champions looked like building up a head of steam.

Jones and Lenihan (free) cancelled out those early Summerhill scoreds and by the sixth minute Michael Murphy had St Peter's ahead.

Eoghan Frayne landed a free to restore p;arity, but two points from Lenihan (one free) and a superb mark from Lacey put St Peter's in the driving seat, 0-6 to 0-3.

An Eoghan Frayne free and point from play from Conor Frayne sandwiched another Lenihan free before a brilliant point from Lacey push St Peter's three clear again.

Eoghan Frayne closed the gap to two before Lacey picked up his two yellow cards in quick succession, but it was St Peter's who closed the half wiyth a score as Lenihan landed another free to secure a 0-9 to 0-6 interval advantage.

That margin was closed to a single point within three minutes of the restart when McDonnell and Eoghan Frayne landed superb scores from play.

Sean Muddiman did well to close the angle and deny Lenihan a goal chance and when Eoghan Frayne converted another free to make it 0-9 each with 25 minutes still to play Summerhill looked like they would kick on.

However St Peter's didn't panic.

Sean Ryan and Lenihan (free) moved them two clear again and before the end of the third quarter Eoghan Frayne made it 0-10 to 0-11 with another free.

Summerhill then lost McDonnell to a black card after he impeded Ronan Jones and St Peter's took advantage of being restored to numerical parity with Leniohan and Byrne both kicking frees to make it 0-13 to 0-10.

Two points from Eoghan Frayne (one free) closed the gap to the minimum again an there was still one between the sides after Lenihan and Dardis ('45') traded scores.

Extra-time looked on the cards when Eoghan Frayne equalised with a brilliant free, but St Peter's stayed on the front foot with Byrne the hero before Lowndes put the cherry on the icing on the cake.

St Peter's - Liam Byrne (0-2 frees); Jack Scannell, Seamus Lavin, Mark Furlong; Craig Lowndes (1-0), Shane McEntee, Sean Ryan (0-1); Jack Kinlough. Ronan Jones (0-1); Stuart Lowndes, Diarmuid Delaney, Cathal Lacey (0-2 one mark); Michael Murphy (0-1), David McEntee, Donal Lenihan (0-8 six frees). Subs - Conor Doran for Delaney 45m, Cian Smith for S Lowndes 53m, Cathal Finn for S McEntee 57m.

Summerhill - Sean Muddiman; Iarla Hughes, Ronan Ryan, John Lavelle; Adam McDonnell (0-1), Ross Ryan, Jack Bannon; Adam Flanagan, Micheal Byrne; David Larkin, Diarmuid McCabe, Kevin Ryan; Conor Frayne (0-2), Eoghan Frayne (0-8 six frees), Barry Dardis (0-3 one free, one '45'). Subs - Podge Geraghty for Byrne 43m, Davy Dalton for K Ryan 49m, Willie Ryan for Bannon 52m.

Referee - Andrew Smith (Dunshaughlin).