Sport

Wait continues for St Vincent's

Dublin SFC Final/ UCD 0-10 St Vincent's 0-9: The pain must be unbearable

Gavin Cummiskey at Parnell Park
Tue Nov 07 2006 - 00:00

Dublin SFC Final/ UCD 0-10 St Vincent's 0-9: The pain must be unbearable. St Vincent's have waited patiently since 1984 for the county title to return to their famous club and, until the legs eventually stopped listening to messages from the brain, it seemed like utopia would be reached last night.

It was cruel that UCD were able to spring two forwards, Offaly's Niall McNamee and Mayo's Austin O'Malley, from the high veldt of inter-county football to spoil the party. McNamee came in and clipped a point, while O'Malley brought it level with two scores before a delightful strike from Louth's Shane Lennon decided the contest. McNamee is now in the Leinster championship with two clubs as Rhode won the Offaly title.

The pre-match marketing campaign appeared to work as the amount of supporters (of the real GAA variety, of course) expected for a Dublin league game in spring turned up at Parnell Park. Maybe, by complete accident, the county board have discovered an enticing fixture. Monday Night Football has a nice ring to it.

Early on, there were more positives from a St Vincent's perspective. Billy Sheehan was silent and the imposing Mark Ward was enveloped by several piranhas whenever he returned to earth. Also, the students seemed rudderless in attack without their chief sniper O'Malley - a late withdrawal.

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The locals, from a stones throw up the road in Marino, eventually found their stride in attack with Dermot Connolly taking a sight of goal, only for the shot to ricochet off the butt of the upright.

Tomás Quinn was wide with a free. Connolly ballooned another free from the right before Kevin Golden blasted a similar effort wide. The people of Marino stared at their feet. That old sinking feeling.

Quinn took responsibility for the dead-ball activity after Fermanagh's James Sherry finally opened the scoring for UCD. Quinn, as quality players tend to do when it matters, began swinging them over. Three frees in quick succession gave the scoreboard a rhythm the game still lacked.

The pace dropped to a murmur for the next 10 minutes.

Ger Brennan was harshly penalised for diving on the ball in first-half injury-time to let Lennon post a simple free, but a Golden strike from the right touchline made it 0-4 to 0-2 at the turn. Only one score had come from play.

Patrick Gilroy swash-buckled through the UCD rearguard seconds after the restart to blast over a point. Golden landed another free with the left boot to make it six to two.

Seán Brady brought the deficit back to a goal, but Ger Brennan - one of the players of the championship - stopped the students building any momentum with a timely interception on Brendan Quill. Quinn landed his fourth free.

To reinforce the tameness of the contest, Gilroy became the first man to see yellow after 41 minutes.

UCD rattled off three points without reply from Sheehan, McNamee and Lennon. The Dublin club needed inspiration and Gilroy supplied it with a point. He was so desperate for the pass from Hugh Coughlan that he almost tackled his team-mate. Tiernan Diamond added another score. Back to a three-point game with one quarter to go.

Then another bout of disaster for Vincent's. The excellent Lennon flew in on goal, but Michael Savage deflected it over for a point. O'Malley was launched from the bench and levelled the game with four minutes to play. St Vincent's tried it with 16 men for a few seconds, Niall Dunne replaced nobody, but a shot from Coughlan sailed wide. Golden was quickly called to the line.

As everyone braced themselves for extra-time, Lennon popped up on the left wing to hit the score of the night. It delivered a seventh Dublin title to Belfield and a date with Wolfe Tones in the Leinster championship.

UCD: S Gallagher; M Dunne, P Navin, J McCarthy; M Duffy, E O Cuiv, B Quill; M Ward, J Sherry (0-1); S Brady (0-1), B Sheehan (0-1), S Lennon (0-4, two frees); C Rogers, P Earls (0-1), C O'Dwyer. Subs: N McNamee for P Earls (half-time), A O'Malley (0-2, one free) for C O'Dwyer (40 mins), P Earls for C Rogers (50 mins).

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; W Lowry, E Brady, A Costello; P Conlon, G Brennan, R Fallon; P Gilroy (0-2), M Loftus; K Golden (0-2, two frees), N Dunne, T Doyle; D Connolly, T Diamond (0-1), T Quinn (0-4, four frees). Subs: S Loughlin for T Doyle (52 mins), B Manning for M Loftus (53 mins), N Dunne for K Golden (58 mins).

Referee: G Barrett (Clann Mhuire).