St. Vincents 1-14
Na Fianna 1-06
Parnell Park, Sunday October 9th
Another Dublin All Ireland Star was certainly the difference yesterday afternoon as Diarmuid Connolly’s goal before the half time whistle turned the tie around and put Vincents onto an ascendancy that saw them through to the Quarter Finals of this years County Championship.
A tight game was expected at Parnell Park as these two rivals faced off.
Enda Varley got things off in the early going for Vincents with a fine score within 30 seconds. But the ball was despatched quickly by Conor McCarville and Na Fianna were immediately on the attack.
With Alasdar Fitzgerald staring down on goal he was taken down in the square and the referee had no option but to award a penalty, which Aaron Byrne obligingly slotted past Michael Savage to give Na Fianna an early 2 score advantage.
Unfortunately for the Mobhi Road men Savage tightened up his gloves and didn’t put a foot wrong for the rest of this contest with Conor McHugh and Aaron Byrne testing the Vincents shot stopper either side of half time but to no avail.
Fitzgerald put a score over from play soon after the penalty to stretch Na Fianna’s lead but it was long before the Vincents engine started to rev.
Two scores from Mossy Quinn followed shortly by another point from a Varley free had the teams level by the thirteenth minute.
Eoin Connolly, while tracking Shane Carthy’s run along the wing made an adventurous, yet silly challenge, bundling Carthy over the sideline and the Na Fianna wing back was awarded a black card for his troubles.
Adam Caffrey, who really did put his back into this game, pointed a free midway through the half to push Na Fianna’s noses in front once more, and sadly for the last time. After a stalemate of around 10 minutes Ruairi Trainer and Nathan Mullins both stepped up and scored exceptional points.
And with the seconds ticking down, Connolly’s aforementioned goal came as he took a breaking ball from the ground and ran towards the right of the square, dodged the oncoming traffic, and beat McGarville with an absolute bullet of a finish into the bottom corner of the net.
It was as you were for the second session as Vincents continued to pile on the pressure. Despite the efforts of Aaron Byrne (2), Adam Caffrey and Conor McHugh to keep Na Fianna ticking over, the damage was done in the first half. Ger Brennan and Jarlath Curley were immense as the backbone of Vinnies defence. And the introduction of Kevin Bonnie and Fiachra Breathnach toward the end of the game only bolstered what was already a solid wall.
Shane Carthy, Cormac Diamond, Nathan Mullins, Enda Varley (2), Gavin Burke and Adam Baxter all took their turn to add scores to the Vincents’ tally.
And as fitting as his goal was to end the first half, Connolly closed this game with what has become a trade mark long range point to end the game 1-14 to 1-06 in favour of Vincents and a place in the upcoming Quarter Finals.
Scorers For St. Vincents:
Enda Varley 0-04 (1f)
Diarmuid Connolly 1-01
Nathan Mullins 0-02
Tomas Quinn 0-02 (1f)
Ruairi Traynor 0-01
Shane Carthy 0-01
Cormac Diamond 0-01
Gavin Burke 0-01
Adam Baxter 0-01
Scorers for Na Fianna:
Aaron Byrne 1-02 (1-0 pen)
Adam Caffrey 0-02 (2f)
Conor McHugh 0-01 (1f)
Alasdar Fitzgerald 0-01
