Mun progress to final but injuries a concern

Sun, 15th October 2017

BALLYMUN KICKHAMS 2-15 KILMACUD CROKES 1-10

An impressive Ballymun Kickhams progressed to the Dublin SFC final following this comfortable eight-point victory over Kilmacud Crokes in Parnell Park on Saturday evening.

However, it's a victory that could unfortunately have come at a cost for Paddy Carr's men with both Small brothers, Paddy and Johnny, forced off with leg injuries late in the game.

Paddy has in especially good form of late and tallied five points from play here to add to the 1-6 from play he scored in their quarter-final victory over St Brigid's.

The Mun started with greater intent and points from Davey Byrne, Carl Keeley, Paddy Small and James McCarthy had them 0-4 to 0-1 ahead inside 11 minutes.

Crokes attacking game-plan lacked the same pace and directness but they still were left to rue a couple of chances in the early stages.

Andrew McGowan was afforded a sighting on goal following a clever pass from Dan O'Brien but blazed wide. It was the type of chance Crokes had to take if they were going to upset the odds.

Disaster struck for Crokes just before the 20 minute marker when Ross O'Carroll was red-carded for a dangerous tackle with the boot on James McCarthy.

By half-time Kickhams were well on their way to victory as they led 1-8 to 0-3 with Jason Whelan getting the goal in the 27th minute as the Mun forced Crokes into a mistake around midfield before attacking with great pace and movement.

With the advantage of an extra man Ballymun were able to deal with the Crokes threat without too much difficulty and it wasn't really until late in the game with the outcome decided that fresh legs off the bench brought some life to the Crokes forward division.

Before then Dean Rock had converted a penalty following a foul on James Burke to lead 2-13 to 0-7 after 49 minutes.

Three minutes later Mark Vaughan finished a Crokes move to the net but at that stage is was purely consolation.

SCORERS - Ballymun Kickhams: P Small 0-5, J Whelan, D Rock (1-0 pen) 1-2 each, K Leahy 0-3, C Keeley, J McCarthy, D Byrne 0-1 each. Kilmacud Crokes: M Vaughan 1-1, P Mannion 0-3 (0-2f), C Pearson 0-2, S Horan, P Burke, C O'Connor, A Jones 0-1 each.

BALLYMUN KICKHAMS: E Comerford; P McMahon, E Dolan, A Hubbard; C Keeley (0-1), J Small, J Burke; A Elliot, J McCarthy; J Whelan, D Rock, K Leahy; E O’Neill, P Small, D Byrne. Subs: C Hulton for Byrne (47), D Keating for O’Neill (52), K Connolly for J Small (55), C Moore for Leahy (60), C Kavanagh for P Small (61).

KILMACUD CROKES: D Nestor; A McGowan, C O’Shea, R O’Carroll; C O’Sullivan, R McGowan, C Dias; C Casey, P Duggan; S Horan, P Mannion, D O’Brien; C Pearson, M Vaughan, P Burke. Subs: J Murphy for O’Brien (ht), K Dyas for Horan (ht), C O’Connor for Burke (35), S Cunningham for Duggan (40), A Jones for Dyas (45), B Shovlin for Dias (57).

REF: D Feeney (Parnell's).