Na Fianna and Ballyboden book Dublin SFC semi-final places
Ballymun Kickhams’ James McCarthy and Jonny Cooper of Na Fianna do battle. Picture: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Na Fianna and Ballyboden St Enda’s confirmed their Dublin SFC semi-final places against Kilmacud Crokes and champions Cuala respectively with contrasting quarter-final wins on Sunday.
After Crokes and Cuala had easily beaten Lucan Sarsfields and Clontarf on Saturday (1-21 to 0-5 and 4-20 to 0-12), Ballyboden St Enda’s were made to battle against a defensive Castleknock before winning 0-11 to 1-5.
The drab affair was followed by a stirring second-half comeback by Na Fianna who had trailed Ballymun Kickhams by 11 points two minutes after half-time when Cathal Tighe found the net.
Ballymun were 0-13 to 0-5 to the good at the interval with Dean Rock contributing seven points from frees, three of them two-point efforts. David Leonard and Dillon Keating had each scored a brace too.
The Na Fianna fightback was led by former Clare forward Keelan Sexton who scored 1-4 as a substitute. Sexton kicked a couple of two pointers as well as a penalty goal won by current Dublin hurler Conor McHugh.
Dublin’s Paddy Small sent over a two-pointer to put Ballymun five up with 10 minutes of normal time remaining but they didn’t score for the remainder of the game. Instead Conor Early, Brian O’Leary and Ciaran Reddin followed with points prior to Sexton’s second two-pointer to square matters.
John Small had a late chance of a point but his outside-of-the-boot effort sailed wide and it was James Doran who provided the match-winning score for Na Fianna when he slalomed his way through a tiring Ballymun defence to make it 1-18 to 1-17 in his club’s favour.
In quality and entertainment, it was light years ahead of the first of the Parnell Park double-header which Castleknock had surprisingly led at half-time, 1-3 to 0-5.
The Castleknock goal came in the 14th minute when Darragh Warnock was at the end of a Rob Shaw point attempt that dropped short.
In their three group games, Ballyboden had posted a whopping 10-57 and won by an average of over 13 points. Castleknock, with former Westmeath manager Jack Cooney in their management set-up, had heard their bark and duly tried to muzzle them with a defensive block.
It was a success to a point – Ballyboden never went more than two scores ahead and Castleknock led 1-3 to 0-5 at the break – but ultimately there wasn’t enough impetus in Castleknock’s counter-attacks to pull of a surprise in Parnell Park.
As close as Castleknock came to levelling the game in additional time, it was a last resort kick into the edge of the square, which Ballyboden goalkeeper Hugh O’Sullivan didn’t negotiate but nobody in blue and gold could touch to the net.
For Ballyboden, Daire Sweeney and Cein Darcy were excellent. Between them, they produced all but one of their team’s scores. Sweeney’s two-point free five minutes into the second half put them into a lead they retained until the end.
He raised another orange flag in the 48th minute and followed it up with a white a minute later to give Ballyboden a cushion that in the context of a low-scoring game seemed comfortable.
Ballyboden St Enda’s v Cuala
Kilmacud Crokes v Na Fianna
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