Irish Times: Dublin Champions St. Vincents ease into Leinster semis

St Vincent’s (Dublin) 0-16 Palatine (Carlow) 0-8
Recently crowned Dublin football champions, St Vincent’s, made light of the loss to a black card on 19 minutes of senior county star Diarmuid Connolly, to record a double scores victory over a spirited Palatine of Carlow in this Leinster Championship quarter-final before an attendance of 2,000 at Netwatch Cullen Park on Sunday.
Vincent’s made a positive start to the game hitting four points from play in the opening four minutes from Enda Varley, midfielder Shane Carthy and two from Cormac Diamond.
Shane O’Neill opened the Palatine scoring with a fine point from play on 12 minutes as the scores began to dry up. By half time the visitors held an 0-5 to 0-3 lead, having shot eight wides and lost Connolly following an incident which saw Shane O’Neill yellow-carded.
With the experienced Ger Brennan orchestrating things in defence and Shane Carthy having a fine game in midfield, the superior fitness of Vincent’s began to tell as the second half wore on. Tomás (Mossy) Quinn found the range to strike five second half points, 0-3 from frees, as the pace of the game began to tell on the Carlow champions.
Still the Carlow champions never gave in with Conor Lawlor, Christopher Crowley, Ciarán Mora nand Conor Crowley continuing to take the game to their fancied opponents. But there was an obvious weakness in the Palatine attack and Michael Savage in the St Vincent’s goal had no genuine save to make in the entire match.
In the final quarter Vincent’s superiority was pronounced and their eventual victory margin of eight points just about represented their level of overall superiority.
Cormac Diamond was the pick of the Vincent’s attack, picking off five points from play while the industry of Shane Carthy in midfield was also important – the No 9 contributed 0-3 out of play. His midfield partner, Daithí Murphy, also made his mark before being withdrawn early in the second half, as the physically bigger Dublin champions progressed to the provincial semi-final.

St Vincent’s: M Savage; M Concarr, J Curley, C Wilson; B Egan, G Brennan, Cameron Diamond; D Murphy, S Carthy (0-3); G Burke, D Connolly, Cormac Diamond (0-5); R Trainor (0-1), E Varley (0-1), T Quinn (0-5, 0-3 frees). Subs: J Feeney for Connolly (black card) (20); A Martin (0-1) for Murphy (35); A Baxter for Varley (41); K Golden for Burke (47); J McCusker for Trainor (55); F Breathnach for Brennan (57).
Palatine: C Kearney; C O’Doherty, C Lawlor, M Rennick; S O’Reilly (0-1), Cristopher Crowley (0-1), J Brennan; D Reid, J Kane (0-1); N Reid, C Moran, S O’Neill (0-3, 0-1 free); J Kenny (0-1), T Kenny, Conor Crowley. Subs: P Reid for J Kenny (40); J Reid for O’Reilly (53); B Kelly (0-1, free) for O’Neill (58)
Referee: N Ward (Westmeath).