Dubliners Fin-ish off Joe’s hopes
A LATE power surge from Fingallians brought St Joseph’s Leinster mission to an abrupt end on Saturday as The Swords outfit booked a last four date with Westmeath’s Rosemount.
In the end the freshly crowned Dublin champions did enough to justify their victory, but it was nowhere near as clear-cut as the scoreline depicts.
Fingallians went into the final 15 minutes trailing by two points, but an expertly dispatched penalty from young sharpshooter Oisin Lynch lit the fuse for a devastating final quarter from the visitors.
It was the second of three penalties awarded by referee David Moore and it gave Fingallians the impetus to kick for home.
With sub Ciaran McLoughlin and Shane Howard in top form they stormed into a nine-point lead, before a late penalty allowed St Joseph’s to cut the gap back to a more respectable six points.
It had been nip and tuck up to that point, with the hosts plundering goals at crucial stages after the break to take what appeared to be significant leads.
No-one really saw Fingallians’ late salvo coming, and in the end the Joe’s were relieved to hear the final whistle.
There was plenty of talk about four-time All-Star Paul Flynn coming to town beforehand, but Cian McGuinness ensured the All-Ireland winner endured one of the quietest games of his illustrious career.
With McGuinness sticking tight to Flynn from the off, the hosts started the match brightly, but were a little wasteful.
In fact they should have netted the opening goal inside 30 seconds when Derek Mulligan popped up on the end of a flowing move, but fired wide.
Alan Quigley floated over a delicious free from wide on the right hand side to open the scoring in the fifth minute and it took Fingallians 14 minutes to register with an Oisin Lynch free.
They could easily have broken their duck with a goal moments earlier, but Joe’s goalkeeper Mark Neary made a superb save to deny David Killeen.
TJ Howard also shot harmlessly wide from a half chance, by which stage Conal O’Hanlon had edged the Joes back in front, again from a free.
Supporters were still awaiting a score from open play, but Shane Howard eventually obliged in the 20th minute.
Fingallians were largely on top in the middle third throughout and Cillian Power won the ensuing kick-out before teeing up TJ Howard for the lead point, 0-3 to 0-2.
But it was still cagey and the sides were level twice more before David Kileen cancelled out a Conal O’Hanlon free to make it 0-5 apiece at the interval.
The first big break came just a minute after the re-start when Joe’s wing back Adam O’Connor broke forward and drew a foul when closing down on James Cummiskey’s goal.
There seemed to be some debate about whether it was inside the area, but the referee and his umpire didn’t have to converse for long to confirm it was a penalty.
Full forward O’Hanlon sent Cummiskey the wrong way to make it 1-5 to 0-5, which in the context of the first-half, seemed like a significant lead.
But the second period was a much more open affair overall and the goal seemed jolt Fingallians to life.
Killeen cut the gap to two with a point and despite missing two frees in succession from McLoughlin and Lynch, the Swords men were soon back on terms through TJ Howard and the increasingly influential McLoughlin.
Then Gary Donnelly popped up on the end of a well-worked short ‘45’ between Lynch and Flynn to send Fins back in front.
But if Fingallians were starting to exert their authority, the locals weren’t about to cow down.
They came again and within 90 seconds of relinquishing the lead, Derek Mulligan sent fellow corner forward Alan Quigley clear and he calmly side-stepped Cummiskey’s advances before drilling low and hard to the net.
Again the visitors seemed to be up against it, but three minutes later Laois whistler Moore evened up the penalty count and Lynch made no mistake from the spot, making it 1-9 to 2-5.
Crucially, McLoughlin and Shane Howard followed up with points to put three between the sides and while O’Hanlon converted a free to close the gap to two, it would the home side’s last score until the same player converted a penalty in injury-time.
In the meantime McLoughlin, Cormac O’Neill and Lynch put five between the sides, before Shane Howard put the issue beyond any doubt with a well-finished goal, the first from open play.
TJ Howard extended Fins’ lead to nine before O’Hanlon converted his second penalty of the afternoon.
Cummiskey was penalised for bringing down Cian McGuinness and received a black card for his troubles, but it was all moot by that stage as Fingallians averted their gaze to Saturday’s semi-final and a home tie against Rosemount of Westmeath at Lawless Park (2.00). FINGALLIANS: James Cumiskey; Ray McMenamin, Danny Campion, David O’Brien; Donal Keane, Gary Donnelly 0-1, Paul Flynn; Cillian Power, Cormac O’Neill 0-1; Eoin Collins, Oisin Lynch 1-3 (2f), David Killeen 0-2; Shane Howard 1-2, Donal Farrell, TJ Howard 0-3. Subs: Ciaran McLoughlin 0-3 (1f) for E Collins, Gavin Campbell for D Keane, Ciaran Murtagh for D O’Brien, Jack O’Connor for D Farrell, Pierce McKittrick (BC).
ST JOSEPH’S: Mark Neary; Cian McGuinness, Ben Mulligan, Shane McQuillan; David Mernagh, Adam O’Connor, Alan Lynch; Tomas Smyth, Killian Staunton; Jack Mulligan, Conall Smyth 0-1, Craig Doherty; Alan Quigley 1-2 (1f, 1 ‘45’), Conal O’Hanlon 1-3 (3f), Derek Mulligan. Subs: Stefan Potts for S McQuillan, Philip Kinahan for J Mulligan, Peter Brennan for T Smyth, Danny O’Brien for C Smyth.
REFEREE: D Moore (Laois).