St Vincent’s 1-14 Lucan Sarsfields 2-8
Ruairi Trainor’s 18th minute goal helped St Vincent’s tovercome Lucan Sarsfields by three points in their Dublin SFC quarter-final at Parnell Park
After an even opening in which Lucan’s Brendan Gallagher and Tomás Quinn of St Vincent’s traded scores, Sarsfields regained their narrow lead thanks to an 8th minute free from Gallagher.
They should have increased that advantage two minutes later but Michael Savage raced smartly from his line to deny the in-rushing Rory Kelly.
That miss seemed twice as costly as Vincent’s landed a massive blow in the as Trainor calmly fired home from a rebound after Quinn’s penalty had cannoned off Philip Green’s upright.
Despite that concession, Lucan responded superbly with CJ Smyth and Dan Gallagher both leaving their defensive duties to kick telling scores and Kelly could well have netted when palming over the crossbar from Jack Carey’s inviting pass.
Despite this positive play, Lucan still found themselves trailing by two points with a late Shane Carthy score eking out a 1-5 to 0-6 interval lead for the 2014 champions.
Vincent’s were far more impressive upon the restart as they opened up Lucan thanks to points from Nathan Mullins and Carthy and they increased their lead to six points with Trainor and Joe Feeney on target.
A Gallagher penalty in the 41st minute handed Sarsfields a modicum of hope and a superbly-taken goal from substitute Andrew Hope left the tie delicately poised in the 55th minute.
However, Vinnies finished strongly with late scores by Connolly and Albert Martin booking a semi-final clash with Ballymun Kickhams next Wednesday night.
St Vincent's: M Savage; H Gill, J Curley, C Wilson; B Egan, G Brennan, N Mullins (0-1); D Murphy, S Carthy (0-4); J Feeney (0-1), D Connolly (0-1), Cameron Diamond; R Trainor (1-1), E Varley (0-1, one free), T Quinn (0-2, one free). Subs: F Breathnacch for Mullins (32), Cormac Diamond (0-1) for Cameron Diamond (40), G Burke (0-1) for Varley (45), A Baxter for Feeney (51), M Concarr for Gill (54), A Martin (0-1) for Trainor (62).
Lucan Sarsfields: P Green; O Ennis, D Gallagher (0-1), CJ Smyth (0-1); P Casey, S Cleary, C McHugh; B Collopy, D Gavin; R Kelly (0-1), S Newcombe, J McCaffrey; J Carey, S O'Shaughnessy, B Gallagher (1-4, 1-0 pen, two frees). Subs: J McCormack for McHugh (41), T Brennan (0-1, free) for Kelly (43), K Fitzgerald for Ennis (47), M McCaffrey for Carey (48), A Hope (1-0) for Collopy (55), D O'Shaughnessy for Newcombe (59).
Referee: Barry Tiernan (O'Dwyer's)
