O’Neill’s brace fires Fingal win

Sporting Fingal 4 Finn Harps 1

Shaun Williams put the third-placed side into the lead on the half hour when he smashed Robert Bayly’s low cross high into the net from 10 yards before Conan Byrne grabbed his 21st goal of the campaign two minutes later.

Byrne latched onto Alan Kirby’s through pass and his chip past the advancing Ciaran Gallagher struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced over the line.

Harps halved the arrears seven minutes after the restart when Christy Connaghan ghosted in undetected to head beyond Darren Quigley but O’Neill restored Fingal’s two-goal cushion as he finished convincingly after being released through the centre by Robert Bayly.

Byrne set up O’Neill’s second goal eight minutes from full-time when he raided into the box and found O’Neill with a cross for an easy header from close range.

SPORTING FINGAL (4-3-3): Quigley; Gannon, Maher, Frost, Fitzgerald; Bayly (Foley 87), McFaul Williams (Dawson 84); C. Byrne, O’Neill (Zayed 88), Kirby.

FINN HARPS (4-4-2): Gallagher; Ruddy (Lafferty 82), Mailey, Rossiter, Doherty; Funston, Bonner (Coll 75), Forker, McLaughlin (Moran 86); Brolly, Connaghan.

Referee: S. Grant (Wexford).