NURNEY VILLA 3 STRETFORD UNITED 0: TITLEHOLDERS, NURNEY Villa, advance to the semi finals of the Evening Herald Carlow Shield with a convincing victory, finishing with ten men.

Villa opened the scoring just eight minutes in when Richard Kearney from a free kick, twenty three yards out, sent the ball past the wall and straight past the United keeper for an excellent score. Nurney were having the better of the first quarter exchanges and were unlucky not to have doubled their advantage when John Miley cracked his shot off the United crossbar with the keeper beaten.

Then Stretford began to trouble the Villa goal and Dinny Byrne was forced into a few good saves, the best from United's Shane Farrell when he blocked the first attempt and was quick to smother the second from the rebound.

Then before the break, United had a good chance of equalising however, Kieran Dollard sent his shot well over.

In the second half, Stretford had a lot of possession, however for most of the time they were passing the ball around and failing to put shots on target.

Gary Powell who was United's main free taker and usually very reliable, seemed to have an off day as the half progressed he sent a free kick well over. Nurney were then reduced to ten when a player was sent off for two yellow cards.

Despite United having the extra man, Villa defended well and relied on the break for the remainder of the half to create any goal scoring chances.

On one such occasion, Pakie Fleming set up Seamus Kinsella to double their advantage on 83 minutes. Still under pressure from Stretford who were desperately trying to get back into the game, Villa broke again two minutes later, Hugh Kelly putting Sean Kinsella through this time to make the tie for the Division 1 side safe and advance to the semi finals.

From a solid team performance from the holders, Nurney Villa, Hugh Kelly, Val Fleming and Pakie Fleming had top-drawer performances. Best players from the Premier side, Stretford United were P. J. Connolly, Gary Powell and James Ryan.

ST. JOSEPH'S 1 ST. ANNE'S 0

JOSEPH'S PULLED off a surprise when they defeated St. Anne's for a semi final meeting with neighbours Nurney Villa.

Following a quite opening quarter, Joseph's struck for what turned out to be the match winning goal on 23 minutes. Colin Doran broke down the left wing and centred for Ian Scully to head home. Stung into action Anne's struck back to put Joseph's defence under severe pressure but failed to finish their good out field work, missing a couple of good openings, Colin Campion shooting over following a Gary Walsh cross and Alan Kehoe putting his effort from the edge of the box wide.

The third quarter was scrappy enough as both sides fought for dominance. Joseph's had the only real chance of this spell but Colin Doran put his header over when well placed. Anne's staged a late rally for the final twenty minutes but again their finishing let them down. Brian McEvoy heading a Joe Murphy cross over and Colin Campion also having a header off target as the Tinryland side held on for victory and a derby encounter to come.

James Moore, Danny Moran and Ian Scully were excellent for St. Joseph's. Andrew Leonard, Ciaran Kelly and Alan Kehoe were the best players for St. Anne's.