NAOMH Moninne are one victory away from qualifying for their first final since 2004 of the Louth senior hurling championship following a fourth successive group victory.

A win over town rivals Pearse Og the weekend after next, will ensure them of their participation in this year's final but they will not get things easy against their Dundalk neighbours who they have struggled to beat over recent years.

It was Mattock who opened the scoring in this game when the lively Brian Corcoran struck over a long range free on three minutes. Moninne supporters had to wait another five minutes for their team to open their account when a ball delivered in by midfielder Darren O Hanrahan fell kindly to Ronan Geoghegan when netted from close range.

A minute later Oisin Drumm rounded off a good solo run with a good point to extend Moninnes lead. The same player pointed again before Geoghegan pointed a free from the right wing to leave five points between the teams after a quarter hour.

Mattock responded in good fashion with points from Johnny Matthews (free) and Gary Rellis direct from a sideline cut. However Moninne were able to up the tempo and six points in as many minutes had them leading by 1-9 to 0-3 late in the half.

Three of these were scored from the impressive Ronan Geoghegan all from play, with Philip Englishby, Stephen Rafferty and Diarmuid Murphy accounting for the others.

Two pointed frees from Johnny Matthews for Mattock in between which Geoghegan grabbed his fifth point of the half, also from a free, had Moninne leading by 1-10 to 05 at half time.

The sides exchanged the opening two points of the second half before Mattock earned a 20 metre free from which they went for goal but they were denied by a good save by one of the alert Moninne defenders on the goal line.

Matthews made up for that missed chance when he pointed another free which was responded to at the other end by a Diarmuid Murphy free from just inside the 65 metre line

Having only scored two points in the opening quarter hour of this second half Moninne then pointed four times over the space of as many minutes all scored by different players.

Firstly Ronan Geoghegan took his tally to 1-7 with Philip Englishby, Diarmuid Murphy and substitute Padraig Mulholland adding the others with the pick of them being the one by Mulholland who scored from a very tight angle from out near the right hand touch line on 50 minutes.

Two points from play from Brian Corcoran showed that the Collon outfit were determined to keep going to the final whistle and after Diarmuid Murphy had sealed the win for the Dundalk outfit with an injury time long range point, they grabbed a late consolation goal when a Gary Rellis effort from midfield decieved everyone including Moninne keeper James Connolly to end up in the back of the net. NAOMH MONINNE: James Connolly; Mark McGuinness, Pearse Doherty, Dermot Plunkett; Ger Collins, Diarmuid Murphy (04), Donal Rafferty; Barry Murphy, Darren O Hanrahan; Philip Englishby (0-2), Oisin Drumm (0-2), Padraig Murphy; Stephen Rafferty ( 0-1), Eddie McArdle, Ronan Geoghegan ( 1-7). Subs - Padraig Mulholland ( 0-1) for P Murphy, Liam Blundell for O Drumm, Sean McLoughlin for B Murphy, Philip Kehoe for D O Hanrahan. MATTOCK RANGERS: Ruairi O'Reilly; Ciaran Maguire, Eoin McKeown, Dominic Maguire; Shane Maguire, Michael Callan, Francis O'Brien; Brian Corcoran (0-4), Gary Rellis ( 1-1); Peter Mullen, Edward Condon, Johnny Matthews (0-4); Jack Byrne, Ken Tobin, Keith Condon. Subs - Tony Corcoran for Eoin McKeown, Declan Madden for J Byrne, Graham Condon for K Tobin, David Quinn for E Condon.