St Vincent’s (Dublin) 0-16
Palatine (Carlow) 0-8

Paul Keane reports from Netwatch Cullen Park

DUBLIN STAR DIARMUID Connolly got his marching orders as St Vincent’s eventually eased through to the last four of the AIB Leinster senior club football championship today.

The 2008 and 2014 All-Ireland winners didn’t impress initially with just a two-point half-time lead on the raging underdogs, while they were without Connolly at that stage too.

The newly crowned All-Star was shown a black card for a grapple with Shane O’Neill who was having a strong game for the Carlow champions.

Vincent’s pulled clear after the break though with Cormac Diamond finishing with five points, all from play, while free-taker Mossy Quinn delivered the same tally and improved as the game wore on.

The Leinster and All-Ireland favourites will be back in action in a fortnight and will hope for an improvement in their play having laboured to victory in recent games.

Connolly’s dismissal was the big talking point from the opening half though it looked initially as if the story would be Vincent’s going to town on their outclassed opponents.

Tommy Conroy’s men raced four points clear with just five minutes on the clock and were totally in the ascendancy.

But they surprisingly added just one more point for the rest of the half and led the hosts just 0-5 to 0-3 at half-time.

Palatine had plenty of possession and could have even wiped out their deficit but for a series of poor shots that dropped short or wide.

Vincent’s were equally poor at the other end with eight first-half wides and were grateful to Diamond for three early points.

Connolly walked after 19 minutes when referee Niall Ward was alerted by one of his umpires to an incident that had occurred.

Connolly actually clashed with O’Neill twice in two separate incidents and it appeared he was black carded for the first, a debatable pull down.

Diarmuid Connolly is shown a black card Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

O’Neill was Palatine’s most effective player and kicked two of their first-half points.

Vincent’s led just 0-7 to 0-5 with two thirds of the game game but five points in a row between the 41st and 49th minutes all but put the game to bed.

Quinn got three of those while boss Conroy unloaded his bench and there were impressive cameos from Albert Martin, their match winner against Ballymun in the county semi-finals, and Kevin Golden.

Interestingly, Vincent’s fielded players from Dublin, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Westmeath and Armagh during the provincial quarter-final tie.

Scorers for St Vincent’s: Tomas Quinn (0-3f) and Cormac Diamond 0-5 each, Shane Carthy 0-3, Enda Varley, Albert Martin and Ruairi Trainor 0-1 each.

Scorers for Palatine: Shane O’Neill 0-3 (0-1f), B Kelly (0-1f), Jamie Kenny, Jason Kane, Stephen Reilly and Christopher Crowley 0-1 each.

​St Vincent’s

1. Michael Savage

31. Craig Wilson
3. Jarlath Curley
2. Michael Concarr

5. Brendan Egan
6. Ger Brennan
20. Cameron Diamond

8. Daithi Murphy
9. Shane Carthy

10. Gavin Burke
11. Diarmuid Connolly
12. Cormac Diamond

13. Ruairi Trainor
29. Enda Varley
15. Tomas Quinn

Subs

21. Joe Feeney for Connolly (19, black card)
25. Albert Martin for Murphy (34 mins)
14. Adam Baxter for Varley (42 mins)
22. Kevin Golden for Burke (48 mins)
24. James McCusker for Trainor (55 mins)
18. Fiachra Breathnach for Brennan (57 mins)

Palatine

1. Craig Kearney

3. Conor Lawlor
2. Conor O’Doherty
4. Mark Rennick

7. Jack Brennan
6. Christopher Crowley
5. Stephen Reilly

9. Jason Kane
26. Niall Reid

12. Shane O’Neill
11. Ciaran Moran
8. David Reid

15. Conor Crowley
13. Jamie Kenny
14. Tomas Kenny

Subs

10. Paul Reid for J Kenny (40 mins)
20. John Reid for Reilly (54 mins)
18. Brian Kelly for O’Neill (59 mins)

Referee: Niall Ward (Westmeath)

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