Devenish win to top the group
chances but they went wide while Tom Treacy also shot wide from a free near the right sideline.
It was after eight minutes of play that Devenish were up and running, thanks to Ruairi Doherty.
A blood sub on for Terry O’flanagan, he took the ball on the run and fired over from 30 yards.
Treacy doubled the lead soon after with a well-struck free.
It would be 10 minutes to the next score and it was badly needed for Belcoo as Ciarán Flaherty took a ball on the run from Dean Mcdermott and his shot clipped the post and went over, 0-02 to 0-01.
But that was Belcoo’s lot in the first half, even though they had good opportunities to increase their total.
Devenish were a bit more economical with their shot selection and were also putting enormous pressure on Belcoo’s kick-outs.
Over the remaining minutes, Terry O’flanagan fired over from the left, while Fionan O’brien knocked over a free to leave it 0-04 to 0-01 at the break.
On the restart it was Devenish who extended their lead.
From the throw-in, a long ball was sent into Robinson who won well but was fouled and was stretchered off.
O’brien converted the resulting free and when
Devenish won the next kickout, O’brien was found in space and he made no mistake, making it 0-06 to 0-01.
Belcoo, who did improve in the second half, would hit the next two scores through Paul Mcgrath frees.
Three points was to be as close as it got for Belcoo, however.
Jamie O’flanagan fired over to make it 0-07 to 0-03 with 15 to play.
Mcgrath had a fisted effort bounce off the post and wide before he converted another free with eight minutes to play.
Responded
Jason Love responded for Devenish to make it 0-08 to 0-04 but a Cillian Murray free after Eoin Shiels was fouled cut the gap to three once more.
With minutes left to play, and having been reduced to 14 men following Ryan Leonard’s dismissal, Belcoo had sight of the Devenish goal.
Murray played in Flaherty and his shot was pushed on to the crossbar by Treacy who then recovered well to force Lawrence Mckeown’s palmed effort out wide.
O’brien hit another free from a foul which forced Mulrone off, and while Murray hit a good score from play Devenish rounded off the game with a monster of a point from John O’flanagan as they now look ahead to the semi-final.
For Devenish joint Manager Marty O’brien, he was happy to get the win under testing conditions, but knows it has come at a cost.
“Conditions were very tough, but our first half performance against the breeze was very good, I thought, and it gave us a decent platform.
“But we struggled to keep the ball in the second half and rode our luck on more than one occasion.
“But as I say, we were happy to get the win and secure the semi-final spot.
“Unfortunately, it looks like we suffered two season-ending injuries in the game, so we’ll have to prepare for the semi-final without Barry and Luke, but we have players there to ready to step up to the plate and I’m hoping they can rise to the challenge.
“We will be keeping an eye on the quarter finals this weekend but really knuckling down on our own game and trying to improve for whoever comes our way the next day out,” he added.