ST PATRICK'S ........... 1-10

DERRYGONNELLY ........ 1-7

St Patrick's finally broke the ice in this Friday evening home clash with Derrygonnelly, a three point win that was well deserved by the Donagh team though they were almost denied this in the final moments, when a Kevin Cassidy attempt for goal almost carved out a draw.

Had the game ended all square it would have been something of an injustice for the contest had been forced all the way by a livelier St Patrick's team who led from start to finish and Derrygonnelly had been unable to lift their game to any appreciable standard.

Foundations for the St Patrick's success came early in the hour as they opened with a promising effort that was orchestrated by Gary Maguire who was a very influential figure over the opening period.

At the heart of most of his side's more enterprising attacking, Maguire was himself on the scoresheet a couple of times with other scores chipped in by Pat Cadden and Barry Little. Derrygonnelly were struggling though they did have a couple of scores in reply from Kevin McGrath and Daniel Ward.

Towards the end of the half the chasing side did begin to get some grip on the threat posed by Gary Maguire and with just three points separating the teams at the break the Harps were certainly not out of contention. But they had been riding their fortune and it had taken a couple of incidents of excellent defensive play to prevent St Patrick's snapping up a goal.

Two goals eventually did pop up in the second half both well taken scores. Paul Cosgrove drove his way down the centre to smash home a well executed score for St Patrick's and on fifty minutes, a clever pass from Daniel Ward created the chance for Kevin Cassidy to spear home a Harps goal.

That trimmed the deficit to three points, Ward added a point for Derrygonnelly and suddenly a St Patrick's team who had been much the better side overall, were teetering on the brink of another setback. The leaders grabbed a much needed score from Gary Maguire to restore a three point lead but then had the anxiety of scrambling their way to safety in the late Derrygonnelly raid that was luckily held off.

For the losing side, second half substitute Michael Jones helped to steady the team effort while in the defence, the better players on the night included Neil Gallagher and Paddy McKenna. Declan Cassidy in the half forward line showed up well after the break but in the main, Derrygonnelly were much too cumbersome in their approach and if they had taken a point from the contest it would have been something of a steal.

For St Patrick's, Ronan McCaffery was a lynchpin defensive figure while Pat Cadden, Shane McDermott and Gary Maguire all contributed heavily to the much needed first win of the season.

Referee Paul Campbell Tempo.