AIB Club football semi-finals : St. Vincent’s v Ballinderry

 

Local Liberties side St. Vincent’s beat Ulster’s Ballinderry 2-14 to 1-13 in AIB All Ireland Club SFC.

They will meet Castlebar Mitchels at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day for final day.

Both teams were fired up and produced a tight, thrilling game in one of the last battles for AIB club glory despite less than ideal conditions in Newry.

St. Vincent’s had glory in their sights and were quickest off the mark despite the last minute exculsion of captain Ger Brennan due to injury. The Dublin side went ahead within the first minute through a Tomás Quinn forty-five.

Vincent’s dominated the opening minutes with Quinn pulling all the strings, slicing open the Ballinderry defence with a slide rule pass which Ciaran Dorney latched onto and smashed in at the near post to make it 2-2 to 0-2.

Vincent’s grip on the game began to slip as Ballinderry’s Colin Devlin drove his team forward and they began to reduce the deficit with three unanswered points.

The Dublin side struggled to cope with the Shamrocks new found impetus and only added another two points before half time.

Ballinderry’s Devlin close range shot on goal hit the bar in injury time meaning the first half ended with a score line of 2-4 to 0-9.

The Dubs started the second period as they did the first and scored three unanswered points with Tomas Quinn once again on the score sheet.

The game then entered its only sloppy period with the two sides wasteful in both possession and scoring chances, and easy ones at that. This suited Vincent’s as the time ticked by and Ballinderry failed to narrow the gap.

The game looked to be ebbing away from the Derry side. That was until the right boot of Daniel McKinless intervened. Daniel, son of Ballinderry’s coach Martin, fired in a low shot from 20 yards out which cut the grass and rippled the net despite the best efforts of Vincent’s keeper Michael Savage.

In a flash Ballinderry had all the momentum and it was 2-10 to 1-11

Vincent’s then dug deep and weathered the Ballinderry pressure. From then on the men from Dublin held their opponents at arm’s length and ended up being comfortable winners adding some late points to make the final score 2-14 to 1-13 in St. Vincent’s favour.

Tomás Quinn was deservedly given man of the match thanks to his tally of 1- 8 and his control of the game.

In the end despite the pride and effort shown by both sides it was St. Vincent’s skill and prowess that won the day.

Teams:

St.Vincents:
Manager: Tommy Conroy
1. Michael Savage 2. Michael Convarr 3. Jarlath Curley 4. Hugh Gill 5. Cameron Diamond 6.Kevin Bonnie 7. Brendan Egan 8. Daithi Murphy 9. Eamon Fennell 10. Gavin Burke 11. Diarmuid Connolly 12. Shane Carthy 13. Tiaran Diamond 14. Ciaran Dorney 15. Tomás Quinn

Ballinderry:
Manager: Martin McKinless
1. Michael Conlan 2. Conor Wilkinson 3. Connor Nevin (capt) 4. Aaron Devlin 5. Raymond Wilson 6. Gareth McKinless 7. Ryan Scott 8. Kevin McGuckin 9. James Conway 10. Daniel McKinless 11. Kevin M. McMGuckin 12. Dermot McGuckin 13. Colin Devlin 14. Ryan Bell 15. Conleith Gilligan