Dublin SFC final: Vincent's retain title
October 30, 2017
St. Vincent's Diarmuid Connolly with Ballymun Kickhams' Philly McMahon ©INPHO/Oisin Keniry
St Vincent's 1-8
Ballymun Kickhams 0-8
There was no quarter asked or given in what was an intensely competitive Dublin SFC final where St Vincent's used all of their guile to hold off the challenge of Ballymun Kickhams in front of a sell-out crowd at Parnell Park.
Enda Varley opened the scoring for St Vincent's who started Diarmuid Connolly at corner forward where he was picked up by his county colleague Philly McMahon.
It took ten minutes for Ballymun to open their account when Dean Rock fired over a free but almost immediately Connolly was on hand to score the first goal of the game to put Vincent's three points clear.
13: GOAL!
- eir Sport (@eirSport) October 30, 2017
Ballymun 0-01 | 1-01 Vincent's. Diarmuid Connolly with the opening goal of the night for @StVincentsGAA1. #DSFC2017 pic.twitter.com/E7Otn9ji7B
Kickhams were rattled but full forward Paddy Small landed a point before Gavin Burke responded for Vincent's.
The champions were well on top and two more scores - from Connolly and Craig Wilson - reflected their dominance as they went five points clear with a couple of minutes remaining in the half.
In the final seconds of the half Carl Keeley and Rock fired over to leave Ballymun trailing by 0-4 to 1-4 at the break and they could h easily been further behind.
Ballymun improved early in the second period with another Rock free narrowing the gap to two before Varley responded with Vincent's first score of the half on 40 minutes.
Jason Whelan replied for Kickhams before two Mossy Quinn points put Vincent's four clear with fifteen minutes to play.
Whelan and Shane Carty then exchanged points before Ballymun had a great goal chance. Keeley was played through only for Michael Savage to produce a stunning save to tip the ball onto the woodwork and over the bar.
That left the score 1-8 to 0-8 with ten minutes remaining and despite Ballymun having a number of chances, there were no further scores either in normal time or the four minutes of additional time added on.
St Vincent's - M Savage, C Wilson (0-1), M Concarr, J Curley, B Egan, G Brennan, Cameron Diamond, L Galvin, N Mullins, G Burke (0-1), S Carthy (0-1), Cormac Diamond, E Varley (0-2), D Connolly (1-1), T Quinn (0-2). Subs - D Murphy for Galvin, R Trainor for Varley, J Feeney for Burke, T Diamond for Cormac Diamond, E Fennell for Mullins, L Sheehy for Cameron Diamond.
Ballymun Kickhams - E Comerford, A Hubbard, P McMahon, E Dolan, C Keeley (0-2), J Small, J Burke, J McCarthy, A Elliott, J Whelan (0-2), D Rock (0-3), K Leahy, E O'Neill, P Small (0-1), D Byrne. Subs - C Hulton for Leahy, T Furman for O'Neill.
Referee - D O'Connor.
TweetThe 2017 Dublin Senior Football Champions! #DSFC2017 #ClubChampionships pic.twitter.com/LT5ZAbo1WZ
- eir Sport (@eirSport) October 30, 2017
