A winning return for St Vincents’ No.19.
St Vincents have followed St. Judes, Ballyboden and Kilmacud Crokes into the semi finals of the Dublin Senior Football Championship, at the expense of Ciaran Kilkenny’s Castleknock.
The northsiders reached the last four in comfortable style, at Parnell Park, after an iffy start.
Castleknock led 1-1 to 0-0 in the opening stages but Vincents were spurred by a goal, in return, from Tomás ‘Mossy’ Quinn.
Vincents kicked on from there and led 1-9 to 1-6 at half-time and eyes were already turning to their bench. There, it contained Dublin forward Diarmuid Connolly in the 19 jersey.
Connolly returned from a summer stint at Donegal Boston, where he won the Boston SFC and was man-of-the-match in the final, and was also named on the bench for the quarters but never kitted out. On Sunday afternoon, with the 30-year-old kitted out in blue and white, there was no doubt about it – he was back.
Connolly did not get on, though, until mid-way through the second half.
Quinn, Shane Carthy and Eamonn Fennell all pointed in the second period as Vincents began to pull away. With 10 minutes to play, Connolly was brought on to a warm round of applause.
Typical of the player, and his talents, one of his first contributions was to craft out a scoring chance for Enda Varley, who knocked over a point.
Quinn and Varley were not finished yet, and they kept the scoreboard ticking over. The final score at full-time was a comprehensive Vincents victory – 1-21 to 1-9.
Following the game, the Dublin SFC draw was made and threw up some tasty ties.
**CONFIRMED**
Dublin SFC1 Semi-Final Draw –@clgnaomhjude v @StVincentsGAA1 @Bodengaa v @KCrokesGAAClub
Games to be played on Sun, Oct 14th. Throw-in times TBC! #DSFC1 #Allianz #Gaa RT
— 𝘿𝙪𝙗𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙧 (@DubMatchTracker) September 30, 2018
Vincents play Judes, while Ballyboden do battle with Kilmacud Crokes on Sunday, October 14.
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