Crokes impress in SFC1 victory over Sylvester’s

DUBLIN SFC1 GROUP 1

KILMACUD CROKES 2-19 ST SYLVESTER'S 1-10

Kilmacud Crokes maintained their 100 per cent record in Dublin SFC1 Group 1 when overcoming St Sylvester's by 12 points in Friday night's clash at Parnell Park.

A Pat Burke goal in the 27th minute gave Crokes the spark they needed and a very impressive start to the second half soon moved the Stillorgan side out of sight.

After a cagey opening Burke hit three points inside two minutes between the seventh and ninth minute to settle Crokes who lined out without Dublin All-Ireland winners Paul Mannion and Cian O'Sullivan.

Dublin panelists Andrew McGowan and Cian O'Connor started for Crokes but McGowan hobbled off in the opening half after suffering an ankle injury.

Further points from Hugh Kenny, Shane Horan and Dan O'Brien had the reigning champions 0-6 to 0-1 to the good after 13 minutes with Alex Wright claiming Syls only score.

Inside the last ten minutes Syls improved with points from Ross Hazley and Karl Archibald, earlier they had a goal opportunity after Jack Hazley gathered a long, high delivery at the second attempt before offloading to Jamie Kennedy but the corner-forward miscued from close range.

Three minutes from the interval Burke powered past three defenders before deftly guiding the ball over the head of advancing Syls keeper MIchael Shiel for the opening goal of the contest and by half-time Crokes were 1-10 to 0-6 ahead.

Crokes restarted with intent and kicked five unanswered points in six minutes with half-time sub Callum Pearson claiming two of them with Burke, Shane Cunningham and Hugh Kenny also on target.

"Some lads put their hands up tonight & made our job difficult over the next two weeks"@KCrokesGAAClub manager @JohnnyMagee06 spoke to #DubsTV after his side's 2-19 to 1-10 win over St Sylvesters in the #DSFC1 pic.twitter.com/NiVCcF99qJ

— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) September 27, 2019

In the 50th minute brilliantly slick interplay between the Crokes forward unit concluded with Ciarán Russell guiding the ball to the Syls net and by the 53rd minute Kilmacud were 2-19 to 0-9 clear.

In the concluding minutes Alex Wright converted a penalty and Micheál McCarthy added a point to improve the look of the scoreline from a Sylvester's perspective.

SCORERS - Kilmacud Crokes: P Burke 1-4 (0-1f), C Pearson 0-4, C Russell 1-0, D O' Brien, S Cunningham, S Horan (0-1f), H Kenny 0-2 each, C O'Shea, S Williams, N O'Leary 0-1 each. St Sylvester's: A Wright 1-3 (1-0 pen), R Hazley, D Brennan 0-2 each, K Archibald, M McCarthy, J Whelan (0-1f) 0-1 each.