Resilient Davis advance to the last eight of c’ship
By Daire Walsh
THOMAS Davis will face Castleknock at the quarter-final stage of the Dublin Senior One Football Championship after a resilient display saw them defeat St Jude’s 2-9 to 2-8 at O’Toole Park on Saturday.
Requiring a win in order to progress from Group Three, the signs were looking ominous for the Tallaght men when they trailed 2-5 to 0-4 at the midway stage. Goals from Alan Connolly and Liam Connerton had put their Templeogue counterparts in the driving seat, while Davis’ also had to contend with the dismissal of Mark Nolan.
However, the combination of Fionn Murray’s dead-ball prowess and an Adam Fallon goal breathed fresh life into their challenge on the restart.
2021 finalists Jude’s looked set to do just enough to get over the line, until Aaron Shorten shook the net in stoppage-time to ultimately seal a dramatic triumph for the Kiltipper men.
Ballyboden St Enda’s and Ballinteer St John’s are set to meet each other in the last-eight of the competition, following their respective successes at the weekend. ‘Boden were level on points with Cuala heading into the final round of fixtures in Group Two and recorded an impressive 1-16 to 0-7 success over Clontarf at O’Toole Park on Sunday.
Cuala were 2-8 to 0-11 victors at the expense of Ballymun Kickhams at Parnell Park, but a superior scoring average saw four-time champions Ballyboden finishing on top of the group.
In the curtain-raiser to their game at O’Toole Park, Ballinteer emerged with five points to spare (1-13 to 1-8) over Raheny.
This left them second in the Group One table behind Kilmacud Crokes, who claimed a facile 3-25 to 1-6 triumph over Templeogue Synge Street at Parnell Park on Sunday.
Ger Vickery (1-1), Niall Scully and Killian O’Gara (0-2 each) did their best to keep TSS in contention, but title holders Crokes underlined their credentials in the most clinical fashion.
Elsewhere, Conor and Brendan Gallagher struck a combined tally of 1-10 in a one-point win (1-14 to 1-13) for Lucan Sarsfields against Whitehall Colmcille at O’Toole Park on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to earn them progression from Group Four.
Meanwhile, St Mary’s, Saggart will face St Oliver Plunkett’s/Eoghan Ruadh in a Dublin Senior Two Football Championship quarter-final after a Carl Finn hat-trick of goals propelled them to a 5-3 to 1-11 group stage win away to Ballyboughal on Saturday.