Dublin S1FC Round-up: Ballyboden St Enda’s late surge defeats Ballymun Kickhams
Ballyboden St Enda’s produced a late surge at Parnell Park last night to earn a 1-16 to 1-11 win over Ballymun Kickhams in Group One of the Dublin Senior One Football Championship.
A headline fixture that featured several of the capital’s inter-county stars, Ballyboden were reined in by their determined northside rivals having found themselves in front for large stretches of the play.
The prospect of a drawn affair loomed large in the closing stages, but with Ryan O’Dwyer squeezing home a goal in between points from Cein D’Arcy and Colm Basquel, ‘Boden ultimately claimed the two points on offer.
Despite starting the game with four of Dublin’s All-Ireland winning squad, Ballymun were staring into a 0-7 to 0-2 deficit by the 19th minute.
They subsequently lost Paddy Small to injury, but did have the luxury of introducing Dean Rock off the bench.
The eight-time Sam Maguire Cup champion made an immediate impact with two points from play and with John Small also splitting the uprights, the ‘Boden cushion was reduced to the bare minimum (0-8 to 0-7) at the midway stage.
The 2016 All-Ireland club champions reinforced their authority with unanswered points from Warren Egan (two), Ryan Basquel and Colm Basquel after the restart, but Ballymun kept themselves in the reckoning with a Robbie Bolger goal on 42 minutes.
While Michael Darragh Macauley was added to the mix for Ballyboden on the third-quarter mark, his former Dublin team-mate Dean Rock converted frees either side of a Dillon Keating point to bring Ballymun back on level terms with five minutes of normal time remaining.
However, Ballyboden held their nerve and struck 1-2 without reply to finally see off the challenge of the four-time county champions.
In Group One’s other game at O’Toole Park, Luke Breathnach registered an impressive haul of 0-9 as Ballinteer St John’s secured a 3-14 to 4-8 victory against Templeogue Synge Street.
In an action-packed encounter, Donncha Carey and Liam Fenton shook the net to propel Ballinteer towards a 2-5 to 0-6 interval advantage.
Templeogue looked towards their Dublin senior stars Niall Scully, Lorcan O’Dell and Killian O’Gara for inspiration on the resumption and they spectacularly forced their way back into contention.
After Breathnach knocked over his third point of the game, O’Dell expertly picked out Scott McConnell for a 34th minute goal. Less than 60 seconds later, O’Gara superbly flicked a long delivery beyond the reach of Ballinteer netminder John Brian Carthy.
A Breathnach-inspired Ballinteer subsequently regained control of the proceedings, only for substitute Mark Treanor to grab a third goal for Templeogue.
Yet Ballinteer gave themselves considerable breathing space with an outstanding individual three-pointer from Mark McNally and while O’Dell slotted home a stoppage-time penalty, they held out for a hard-earned win.
In the curtain-raiser at Parnell Park, Castleknock were comprehensive 2-17 to 1-12 victors at the expense of Skerries Harps in Group Two of Dublin football’s top-tier.
In addition to goals from Luke Swan and Senan Forker, Dublin footballer Ciaran Kilkenny bagged a brace of points and had a hand in several other scores.