Vins finish with flurry of goals to see off 13-man Jude’s

ST VINCENT'S 4-12 ST JUDE'S 1-12

Holders St Vincent's reached their fifth Dublin SFC final in-a-row with this semi-final victory over St Jude's in Parnell Park on Saturday night.

While the scoreline might suggest this was a clearcut victory for the Marino side it wasn't until the closing ten minutes that Vinnies pulled clear, at that stage Jude's had been reduced to 13 men following two second half dismissals.

Eight minutes into the second half Mark Sweeney was sent off after a second yellow card offence and just at the three-quarter mark the Tymon North side lost their goalkeeper, Paul Copeland, to a straight red following a high tackle on Shane Carthy.

At that stage Vincent's held a slender 1-6 to 0-8 lead and were finding life very difficult against a highly motivated Jude's.

Points from Enda Varley (two, one free) and sub Ruairi Trainor just inside the final ten minutes pushed the holders four points up, 1-10 to 0-9.

But still Jude's battled back with a Niall Coakley free to make it 1-10 to 0-10 after 55 minutes.

It was then the walls caved in for Jude's with Vincent's hitting three goals from there to the finish with Tomás Quinn, Shane Carthy and Brendan Egan after firing home from close range.

In the fourth minute of added time Jude's sub Diarmuid McLoughlin grabbed a late, late goal for Jude's.

The opening half was very keenly contested. Jude's opened the more impressively and led 0-3 to 0-1 by the tenth minute following scores from Ross O'Brien, Kevin McManamon (free) and a fine Jason Doherty point at the end of a quicksilver move.

Vincent's slowly got into the game boosted by Nathan Mullins stunning 20th minute goal when he carved through the Jude's defence at top speed before arrowing a low drive to the net off the inside of Copeland's left post.

By the break the sides were level 1-4 to 0-7, the half concluded with some heated exchanges at the players headed for dressingroom area. Before the restart of the second half Jude's midfielder Mark Sweeney was yellow-carded, eighth minutes later he was sent off as Jude's fortune began to wane.

SCORERS – St Vincent’s: T Quinn 1-3 (0-3f), S Carthy 1-1, N Mullins, B Egan 1-0 each, E Varley 0-3 (0-1f), Cormac Diamond, R Trainor 0-2 each, D Connolly 0-1. St Jude’s: D McLoughlin 1-1, K McManamon (0-3f), N Coakley (0-1f) 0-4 each, K Doherty 0-2, R O’Brien 0-1.

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; M Concarr, J Curley, C Wilson; Cameron Diamond, G Brennan, B Egan; L Galvin, N Mullins; G Burke, D Connolly, Cormac Diamond; E Varley, S Carthy, T Quinn. Subs: R Trainor for Cormac Diamond (37), D Murphy for Galvin (49), L Sheehy for Cameron Diamond (52), T Diamond for Burke (56), E Fennell for Varley (58), J McCusker for Wilson (60).

ST JUDE'S: P Copeland; C Fitzpatrick, P Cunningham, R Martina; C Guckian, M Sweeney, N O’Shea; P Courtney, C Murphy; R O’Brien, R Joyce, K Doherty; D Donnelly, N Coakley, K McManamon. Subs: D McLoughlin for O’Brien (43), JB Carty for Murphy (47), E McLoughlin for Joyce (50), S King for Courtney (51).

REF: G McCormack (Naomh Barróg).