A detective arriving late on the scene and working backward from the scoreline might have deduced that this was an exciting game.
The slender margin suggested that the outcome was in doubt until late in the day. Furthermore the presence of recent All-Ireland club champions might have suggested too that the game was decorated perhaps by outbreaks of quality football. Try again, Sherlock.
Kilmacud Crokes limped home against St Peter's, Dunboyne at Navan yesterday and in doing so defied the short odds in their favour.
On paper the south Dublin team have a unit which looks better than their 1995 line-up. Corner forwards Mick O'Keeffe and Ray Cosgrove are newly installed as the prongs of Dublin's attack. The half-back line looks as good as anything on the club scene and elsewhere they are blessed with players drawing inter-county experience from several corners of the country.
Kilmacud should have won at a canter yet Dunboyne, who have jumped from junior to intermediate to senior within a decade, rattled them thoroughly.
Kilmacud, however, started without four of the side which won the county final. Robbie Leahy (honeymoon) Ian O'Sullivan (emigrated), Mick Pender (injured) and Peter Ward (late arriving from a business trip) would be a collective loss which would fatally hinder most club teams. Most days in the club championship surviving is enough. Style is for daydreams.
Dunboyne, realising that in the year of their first county title the scalp of Kilmacud Crokes would be as good as another trophy, used their resources cleverly. Brendan Reilly, struggling with injury, came in at centre forward and Enda McManus, picked at full back, spent the day shadowing Cosgrove. In midfield the notably-talented Nigel Crawford spread himself about the territory as if he was being paid a mileage rate.
The Meathmen began well, clipping the first two points and never losing touch even when Crokes began to play. The evidence of previous outings suggests that when they cut loose Kilmacud are a more potent force now than they were three years ago. Dunboyne stayed tight and robustly competitive and made sure that Crokes never really cut loose.
There were scares of course. The Dubliners had just scored their first point when McGee found Dillon who found O'Keeffe, who demanded a terrific save from David Gallagher in the Dunboyne goal. Back to the drip drip drip of taking the points.
Ward's introduction in the 13th minute, for Mark Duncan, restored some of the shape to the Kilmacud attack, but Dunboyne slapped them down again with points from Andy McEntee and Martin O'Toole.
Any fleeting complacency vanished when Mick Jones fumbled a ball with Reilly and McEntee snapping at his heels. Kilmacud escaped with their lives and added two points late in the half to get to the break with the wafer-thin cushion of a point.
It wasn't as if key elements of Kilmacud's machine weren't working, more that Dunboyne's enthusiasm operated like 15 spanners in the works. The halfback line scurried and harassed, the midfield - Crawford especially - spoiled and tackled ferociously. All the goals came in the second period within a 14-minute spell. Had it been a boxing match that sequence of blows would have been counted decisive. Kilmacud struck twice but each goal had a touch of luck about it. In the 40th minute O'Keeffe, Cosgrove, Dillon and Ward linked before Wardtried a shot which took a deflection of the palms of Maurice Finn before bouncing to the net.
Four minutes later O'Keeffe was through only to see his shot saved again by Gallagher. This time, however, the breaks went against the goalkeeper and Cosgrove followed up to volley home leaving Kilmacud five points up.
That should have been the platform for a comfortable finish but Dunboyne swept straight down the pitch and just as the move looked like breaking down Brendan Reilly dived and got a fist to a breaking ball, knocking it low under Mick Jones. Ken Gannon supplemented with a point and the game was going to the wire. Cosgrove and McEntee traded points as the game lurched towards the death. Dunboyne won sufficient ball in midfield to have expected the return of an equalising point but little moments like that when Ward dispossessed Ken Gannon as he prepared to shoot are what determine games like these.
KILMACUD CROKES: M Jones; C O'Dwyer, C Deegan, C Cleary (capt); J O'Callaghan, J McGee, C Redmond; J Costello (0-1), M Leahy; M Duncan, M Dillon (0-1), P Burke (0- 1); R Cosgrove (1-2), R Brennan (0-1), M O'Keeffe (0-1). Subs: P Ward (1-0) for Duncan, 13 minutes; P Walsh for R Brennan, 54 mins.
ST PETER'S, DUNBOYNE: D Gallagher; J Dowdall, E McManus (capt), P Watters; M Finn, L Duggan, G McGovern (0-1); N Crawford (0- 1), M O'Toole (0-1, a free); B Reilly (1-0), D Gallagher, T Byrne (0-1); K Gannon (0-3, one free), D Smith, A McEntee (0-2, one free). Sub: L Reilly for M O'Toole, 51 min.
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).
