Kilmacud Crokes manager Paddy Carr heaped praise on county star Mark Vaughan after his 1-8 inspired the Dublin champions to a four-point win over battling Newtown Blues in the Leinster club football quarter-final. Carr said: "Mark Vaughan can be a much-maligned footballer at times, but I think people saw the character he has in this game. "He took on the big challenges that other guys might have shied away from and scored a wonderful goal when others might have gone for a point, and Brian Kavanagh, just after the goal, scored two wonderful points. "It can be a very difficult thing to hold or sustain a lead if a team is getting a run at you - you may as well be trying to hold the Liffey back with your two hands. We got the vital scores at vital times and that was the difference. "We were within a kick or two of the ball of going out, but that's football and I've been on the other side of it as well, so I'm delighted and relieved that we came through this." His Newtown Blues counterpart Eugene Judge felt the Louth champions let victory slip after storming ahead early in the second half. "We needed a goal and we got it, but had we got one more score, then we just might have pulled it off," he said. "It was definitely there for us, but we just lacked that little bit of experience. We gave the ball away too often and we paid for it." Tweet

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