Leinster club SFC: 'Hill have no answer to mighty Quinn

November 24, 2013

Man of the match Tomas Quinn and Ciaran Dorney bagged goals inside the first 11 minutes.
©INPHO/Donall Farmer.
St. Vincent's (Dublin) 1-14
Summerhill (Meath) 1-10

Mossy Quinn rolled back the years with a personal haul of 1-8 (1-4 from play) at Parnell Park as an understrength St. Vincent's saw off a stern Summerhill challenge to set up a Leinster final showdown with Portlaoise in a fortnight's time.

With Diarmuid Connolly and Ger Brennan both missing through suspension, their former Dublin team-mate stepped up to the plate with a superb display of marksmanship to leave the Marino men just 60 minutes away from winning their first provincial title since 2007.

Quinn scored 1-3 in the opening half to help St. Vincent's to a 1-7 to 0-6 interval lead, and he added a further 0-5 in the second period as the Dublin champions withstood a determined fightback from a Summerhill team that finished the game with 14 players after Stephen Husband was sent off in the dying moments.

Summerhill threw down the gauntlet to the favourites by racing into an early 0-4 to 0-1 lead through points from Brian Ennis (two frees), David Larkin and county man Conor Gillespie. Quinn narrowed the gap before further scores from Ennis and full forward Seanie Dalton helped the Meath kingpins to a 0-6 to 0-3 lead after 23 minutes.

But Quinn had the Vins back on level terms when his left-footed shot beat Tony McDonnell, and he added three more points, including two from play, to give the home side a four-point cushion at the break.

Three more Quinn points on the restart pushed out St. Vincent's lead to seven points, 1-10 to 0-6, but Summerhill then came storming back into it with a fisted goal from Paul Rispin and points from Sean Dalton, Adrian Kenny and Gillespie to leave just the minimum in it, 1-10 to 1-9.

Crucially, though, they failed to regain parity as the Vins kept their composure and closed out the game with late scores from Quinn, Ruairi Trainor and Eamon Fennell.

St. Vincent's - D Jordan; K Bonnie, J Curley, H Gill; C Diamond, B Egan, M Concarr; D Murphy, E Fennell (0-1); G Burke (0-2), R Trainor (0-2), S Carthy (0-1); A Baxter, C Dorney, T Quinn (1-8, 0-3f, 1'45). Subs: K Golden for Baxter, T Diamond for Dorney, N Mullins for Burke.

Summerhill - T McDonnell; D Dalton, C Young, W Ryan; P Geraghty, A Lyons, S Husband; C Gillespie (0-2), M Byrne (0-1f); D Larkin (0-1), B Ennis (0-3f), A Kenny (0-1); P Rispin (1-0), S Dalton (0-2), B Dardis. Subs: R Hatton for Lyons, S Kennedy for Dardis, P Jennings for Geraghty.

Referee - E Kinsella.

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