Dublin Club SFC Final

ST. VINCENT’S 1-8 BALLYMUN KICKHAMS 0-8

By John Harrington at Parnell Park

A well-organised St. Vincent’s team won their four Dublin Senior Football Championship in five years at the expense of Ballymun Kickhams in Parnell Park tonight.

A well-drilled defence, a slick counter-attacking strategy, and a little bit of magic supplied by Diarmuid Connolly were the key ingredients in the Marino club’s win.

They strangled the life out of Ballymun in what was a less than thrilling game of football, but you could only admire the way they went about their business in a very professional manner.

Ballymun came into the match as favourites, which you can be sure stuck in the craw of a St Vincent’s side who were defending champions and appearing in their fifth Final in a row.

They played like a team that were keen to prove a point from the very start as they took the game to Ballymun and played the more cohesive football.

Ballymun were using Davey Byrne in a deep-lying free-role, but for much of the first half they looked slightly confused tactically compared to a more structured and well-drilled St. Vincent’s outfit.

The Marino men were defending in numbers without the ball, but as soon as they won it back would open up like a concertina and push forward in numbers too.

And even though Ballymun had an extra-man in defence in the shape of Byrne, his role was more that of a play-maker than a classic sweeper so he quite often he wasn’t in the right position to snuff out danger.

St. Vincent’s had a glorious chance to score an early goal when Diarmuid Connolly raced through, drew the cover, and then hand-passed to Tomás Quinn.

The pass was slightly undercooked though which gave Ballymun full-back Eoin Dolan just enough time to get back and make a brilliant goal-line save from Quinn’s shot.

That was a let-off for Ballymun, but they didn’t heed the warning.

Philly McMahon was guilty of some lackadaisical play when he sallied forward out of defence and tried to solo the ball through a cluster of St. Vincent’s players but was stripped of possession.

The ball was immediately kicked into his man, Diarmuid Connolly, who was now in splendid isolation, and he bore down on goal and finished emphatically to the back of the net with a sweet left-footed strike.

That put St. Vincent’s 1-1 to 0-1 ahead, and as the half progressed they continued to out-play an increasingly frustrated Ballymun outfit.

The dangerous looking Paddy Small did pilfer a pretty point for the Kickhams, but the next three scores were landed by the Marino men as Gavin Burke, Connolly, and corner-back Craig Wilson all pointed.

Things could have been even uglier for Ballymun – Tomás Quinn was unlucky to see a well-struck shot rebound off the butt of the left-post.

It wasn’t until the final few minutes of the half that Kickhams finally started to knit their game together, and their greater cohesion had an immediate impact on the scoreboard as Carl Keeley kicked an nice point and then Dean Rock landed a free.

Considering they had been largely outplayed in the first 30 minutes, a half-time deficit of just three points – 1-4 to 0-4 – was a decent outcome for Ballymun.

They seemed a more focused team at the start of the second-half too, with greater method and pace to their attacking thrusts.

St. Vincent’s were still playing clever counter-attacking football though, and 15 minutes into the half the teams had exchanged two points each.

The pick of those scores was landed by Tomás Quinn under pressure, and a few minutes later he won and converted a free to push St. Vincent’s four points clear, 1-7 to 0-6.

After Jason Whelan and Shane Carty then exchanged points, Ballymun had a glorious chance to strike a really decisive blow when they created their first clear goal-chance.

Buccaneering wing-back Keeley tore forward again and played a slick one-two with Dean Rock that put him clear through on goal.

His shot was well-struck, but Michael Savage did brilliantly to get a hand to it and deflect it over for a point, via the cross-bar

There were still nine minutes of normal time and six minutes of injury-time to be played, but Keeley’s point proved to be the last score of the game.

St. Vincent’s shut up shop for the remainder of the contest and Ballymun simply couldn’t break them down.

As a game of football it won’t live long in the memory, but the only thing St. Vincent’s will care about is that their 29th Dublin Senior Football title has been inked in the record-books.

**Scorers for St. Vincent’s: **Diarmuid Connolly 1-1, Tomás Quinn 0-2 (1f), Enda Varley 0-2 (1f), Gavin Burke 0-1, Shane Carty 0-1, Craig Wilson 0-1

Scorers for Ballymun: Dean Rock 0-3 (3f), Jason Whelan 0-2, Carl Keeley 0-2, Paddy Small 0-1

ST. VINCENT’S: Michael Savage; Michael Concarr, Jarlath Curley, Craig Wilson; Cameron Diamond, Ger Brennan, Brendan Egan; Lorcan Galvin, Nathan Mullins; Gavin Burke, Diarmuid Connolly, Cormac Diamond; Enda Varley, Shane Carty, Tomás Quinn. Subs: Daithi Murphy for Lorcan Galvin (ht), Ruairi Trainor for Enda Varley (43), Joe Feeney for Gavin Burke (49), Tiernan Diamond for Cormack Diamond (57), Eamonn Fennell for Nathan Mullins (63), Luke Sheehy for Cameron Diamond (64)

BALLYMUN KICKHAMS: Evan Comerford; Philly McMahon, Eoin Dolan, Alan Hubbard; Carl Keeley, John Small, James Burke; Jason Whelan, James McCarthy; Aaron Elliott, Dean Rock, Kevin Leahy; Eoin O’Neill, Paddy Small, Davey Byrne. **Subs: **Colm Hulton for Kevin Leahy (44), Ted Furman for Eoin O’Neill (57)

Referee: David O’Connor