Schools Cup Final/St Mary's College 1 Firhouse CC 1 (St Mary's won 4-3 on pens): This Smart Telecom Irish Schools Senior Cup final at Whitehall may not have been as skilful as previous deciders, but it was rich in drama, going all the way to penalties after extra-time.

And having captured the Dr O'Neill cup, St Mary's are now lining up another piece of silverware as they take on St Patrick's Navan, in next weekend's All-Ireland A colleges football semi-final in Longford.

And yet the unique double looked unlikely for long spells after Firhouse took the lead four minutes in. But having failed to convert several chances in normal time, the Dubliners suffered the agony of conceding a goal with just two minutes left.

And with their two main strikers having been replaced prior to the dreaded penalty shoot-out, Firhouse came away empty-handed.

Firhouse had got off to the perfect start when Alan Farrington squeezed his effort from outside the box inside the keeper's right-hand post. But they were unable to repeat the dose, though they had scored 22 goals in seven previous outings in this competition.

Firhouse keeper Philip Bergin did well to deny Conor Healy from outside the box.

It was route-one stuff for Firhouse after the break but they got little change out of Healy, who was exceptional at centre half.

Firhouse had a real chance to score on 76 minutes. But despite excellent work from Farrington inside the penalty area, his finish was disappointing.

St Mary's were the dominant team in the remaining quarter-hour and with just two minutes left Eoin Concannon converted a Jason Molloy cross at the far post.

With no resolution in extra time, penalties followed, both keepers making two saves before strikes from Adam Doran (Firhouse) and Glen Ward forced a sudden death shoot-out.

With the score at 3-3, the advantage then went back to St Mary's, with Paul Conroy diving down low to deny Stephen Mahon before substitute Darren Smyth stepped up to settle the issue.

FIRHOUSE CC: Bergin; Dunne, G Ward, K Ward, Doran; Coughlan, Mahon, Rothery, McEnroe; Farrington, Cronan. Subs: McDonnell for McEnroe (78 mins), Maloney for Farrington (80 mins), Kennedy for Cronan 104 mins.

ST MARY'S GALWAY: Conroy; Deacy, Healy, Cullen, Hurley; Kavanagh, O'Connell, Whelan, Concannon; Molloy, Lynch. Subs: Smyth for Lynch (64 mins), Egan for Deacy (74 mins), Gibbons for Concannon (95 mins).

Referee: F Cunningham (Dublin).