Dublin booked their place in the ESB All-Ireland MHC semi-finals after recovering from a sluggish start to beat Antrim in the first of the quarter-finals at Crossmaglen yesterday.

Dublin 3-13
Antrim 1-11

The Ulster champions, who played a large chunk of the game with 14 men, came flying out of the blocks and led by 1-3 to 0-1 after 13 minutes with Daniel McCloskey finding the net as early as the second minutes.

But Dublin eventually settled to their task with Cormac Costello's 16th minute goal bringing them back into it. Antrim's cause wasn't helped by the sending off of their full back Matthew Donnelly a short time later and they went into the break trailing by 1-6 to 2-6 after Whitehall Colmcille clubman Costello struck for his second goal in the 28th minute.

And the beaten Leinster finalists took complete control when Fergal Heavey grabbed their third goal immediately after the restart to push them into a 3-6 to 1-6 lead. Antrim tried their utmost to claw back the deficit, but with Danny Sutcliffe and Sean McClelland rock solid at the back, Dublin never looked in any danger.

Dublin - E Dillon; C Murphy, E McKenna, S McClelland; C Moffat (0-3, 3f), D Sutcliffe, B Quinn (0-1); B McCarthy, D Kelly; E O Conghaile (0-1), G Whelan, F Heavey (1-1); C Costello (2-1), C Kilkenny, D Flood (0-3, 3f). Subs: M McCaffrey for Moffat, J Hetherton (0-1) for Kelly, N Maguire (0-1) for Heavey, N Ryan (0-1) for Costello.

Antrim - J O'Mullan; C Orchin, M Donnelly, O Quinn; C Morgan, D McPeake, A McGowan; J Black (0-1), P McNaughton; C McCann (0-2), C McGuinness (0-1), R O'Neill; D McCloskey (1-1), S Jennings, C Clarke (0-6, 6f). Subs: F Donnelly for O'Neill, J McLister for McCloskey, E McAlonan for Jennings.

Ref: A Kelly (Galway) Tweet

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