Dublin SFC: Ballyboden St Enda’s and Kilmacud Crokes secure semi-final berths

Ballyboden St Enda's Aran Waters is tackled by Ciaran Murphy and Graham Hannigan of Castleknock. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Ballyboden St Enda’s progressed to the last four of the Go Ahead Dublin SFC when comfortably overcoming Castleknock by 2-17 to 1-11 at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon.

Last year’s beaten finalists made a decisive move in the second quarter after a relatively even opening period in which Castleknock made their presence known thanks to points from play by Ben Galvin, Tom Shields, Conor Chawke and Rob Shaw.

However, their efforts flagged as the contest evolved, largely due to the effects of their play-off win over Ballinteer St John’s on Wednesday night, and St Enda’s too full advantage as they kicked six points on the bounce, with Warren Egan and Colm Basquel sharing four of those scores.

Darragh Warnock’s smartly-taken goal in the 28th minute offered Castleknock some hope approaching the break but late points by dual stars Simon Lambert and Conal Keaney left Ballyboden in fine fettle at 0-12 to 1-5 by half-time.

Castleknock's Ciaran Kilkenny dejected. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Shields trimmed Castleknock’s deficit within two minutes of the restart but they suffered a fatal blow soon after as the influential Aran Waters powered through to shoot low past the exposed Morven Connolly.

Any semblance of a contest was lost in that moment and with Ryan Basquel and Colm Basquel enhancing their personal tallies, St Enda’s put further daylight between the teams with an excellent goal from substitute Ciaran O’Reilly in the 54th minute.

They are joined in the semi-finals by a Kilmacud Crokes team that withstood some late Na Fianna pressure to eventually prevail by 1-11 to 0-12.

Crokes dominated initially and were buoyed by a cracking Dara Mullin goal in the 8th minute with a brace of points from Offaly senior Shane Horan and further scores by Shane Cunningham and Craig Dias yielding a 1-5 to 0-3 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The contest stuttered from that point with Na Fianna enjoying a greater degree of possession and while both Conor McHugh and David Lacey tagged on frees as the half evolved, they still entered the break trailing by 1-6 to 0-5.

Na Fianna were far more committed after the break and were rewarded for their efforts through scores from Lacey and Seán Caffrey while Kilmacud made the most of some sporadic attacks to kick crucial points from Cian O’Connor and Cunningham.

The intensity raised a notch for the final quarter as Caffrey continued to eat into Crokes’ lead but points from Dan O’Brien and Mullin, alongside a wonderful block from Rory O’Carroll at the opposite end, proved priceless as Kilmacud held on, albeit unconvincingly.