Lavey comfortably dispatch Cootehill Celtic to advance into semi-finals

Lavey 3-16 ... Cootehill Celtic 1-9

Lavey eased their way to the last four with victory over Cavan champions Cootehill Celtic on Sunday afternoon at Celtic Park.

Martin Convery’s side were wasteful with a tally over 19 wides over the hour but three second half goals shot them on the way to victory.

It sets up a semi-final with Armagh’s Cuchullains who hit seven goals to down Erne Gaels on Saturday.

“They really had to give us a fill of it, as we knew they would do,” Lavey manager Martin Convery said of Cootehill’s challenge.

“We’ve a young team; it's wintertime and winter hurling is a different sort of thing than you play all summer.

“We were very poor in the first half and did a lot better in the second half, but all we've done was get another week's hurling. That's all we've done today.

“Hopefully we have to improve on that an awful lot, but hopefully we can improve on that. At least we've done enough to give ourselves a chance of doing that.”

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Star forward Rian Collins was out injured, Rian McGarvey was missing with key man Eamon McGill also unavailable with injury.

The Derry champions needed a brilliant Eoin Mulholland save to tip a Mark Moffet shot over for the game’s first score.

Thomas Lynch levelled the game with two Ryan Mulholland points putting Lavey 0-4 to 0-1 ahead midway through the half.

Lavey had 11 first-half wides but continued to get away shots with Conor Shanley and Rian Delany on target for the Cavan men.

Fintan Bradley and Lynch added Lavey frees before the score of the game from Cootehill’s Dylan McKeever made the interval score 0-8 to 0-4.

“You're creating chances but you have to score them because there was a lot of misses,” Convery said of Lavey getting eight points from 22 first-half shots.

“They weren't under pressure, so it is a concern. As you go on in this competition, you won't get many chances and if you get chances you have to take them.

“We should be getting more than we are getting so we just have to work on that. As it goes on and the competition get tighter, you'll get less shots.

“You'll get shots, but you're under more pressure, so the conversion rate has to, there's something to do there.”

Lavey hit two cracking goals early in the second half. Ryan Mulholland made a chance for Connor Melaugh to rifle home before Mulholland bagged the second, from the same spot, for a 2-8 to 0-4 lead.

When Lavey’s third goal came it was Aimon Duffin who applied the finish after goalkeeper Clerkin made a save from a Connor Melaugh shot.

Ryan Mulholland and Fintan Bradley added scores before a Cootehill rally.

A Mark Moffett free from long-range took a deflection before hitting the net in an unsewered 1-3 from the Cavan side.

Scorers

Lavey: Ryan Mulholland 1-4, Connor Melaugh 1-3, Fintan Bradley 0-4 (3f), Aimon Duffin 1-1, Thomas Lynch 0-2, Ryan McGill (f) and Dara Young 0-1 each

Cootehill: Mark Moffet 1-5 (1-4f), Dylan McKeever 0-2, Rian Delany and Conor Shalvey 0-1 each

Teams

Lavey: Eoin Mulholland; John McGurk, Brendan Laverty, Aidan Toner; Ryan Farren, Eoin Scullion, Tiarnan Melaugh; Ryan McGill, Fintan Bradey; Charlie Curley, Connor Melaugh, Ryan Mulholland; Jack Convery, Aimon Duffin, Thomas Lynch. Subs: Lorcan McDonnell for Convery (37), Dara McGurk for Scullion (48), Cormac Collins for Lynch (51), Rory Scullion for McGurk (52), Conor McGurk for Curley (55)

Cootehill: Niall Clerkin; Joshua Martin, Enda Shalvey, Shane Clerkin; Euan Crossan, Darragh Boyle, Diarmuid Carney; Ryan Rodgers, Rian Delaney; Joshua Dunne, Dylan McKeever, Thomas Leonard; Mark Moffet, Lonan McKenna, Conor Shalvey. Subs: Colm Shalvey for Rodgers (Blood sub 16, reversed18), Colm Shalvey for Crossan (HT)

Referee: James Callaghan (Donegal)