OFFALY'S newly crowned champions, Shannonbridge, did the Faithful County proud in the replay of the Leinster club SFC in Tullamore on Saturday when they overcame the powerful challenge of Rathnew. Their narrow 1-9 to 0-11 victory saw them advance to meet St Sylvester's of Dublin in the quarter final next weekend.

The winners may have been fortunate insofar as their opponents missed at least three easy goal scoring chances, including a 24th minute penalty. Instead of being in a commanding posit in at the interval the visitors had to settle for level terms at 0-4 each.

The decisive score of the hour came just 13 seconds after the interval when Shannonbridge corner-forward Anthony Kellys scored the only goal of the game.