Tom Mitchell hit a hat trick as St Josephs bounced back from last weekend’s defeat to Dolmen to get their Shield campaign up and running against Bagenalstown. Mitchell opened the scoring on 10 minutes when his neat shot on the turn found the net. Bagenalstown travelled light on numbers and when they lost Ryan Lundy to injury, they had to play the rest of the game with 10 men. Dean Davis almost doubled the advantage, but his well struck effort came back off the crossbar. 'Town made light of the numerical disadvantage as they levelled matters on the half hour, Paddy O'Brien was fouled in the penalty area and Trevor Nolan duly despatched the spot kick for 1-1. Joeys got their noses back in front just before the break, Luke Hutton providing the assist as Mitchell's low strike zipped into the corner. Bagenalstown began the second half well but despite plenty of possession they couldn't find an equaliser and with 15 minutes left the hosts struck again. Robert Timmons went on a run down the wing before crossing perfectly for Mitchell to complete his hat trick. With tiredness creeping into the Bagenalstown side it was St Josephs that finished the stronger with Jack Lawlor setting up Padraig Webb to curl a beauty into the top corner from the edge of the box to make it 4-1 as Joeys ran out comfortable winners in the end thanks to a solid team performance. Best for Bagenalstown included Paddy O'Brien, Robbie Kane, and Sean McDermott