Crokes pushed to limit for win

Leinster Club football championship Kilmacud Crokes 0-14 Garrycastle 1-10 Kilmacud Crokes were left at the mercy of Pat Finnegan's timekeeping on Saturday before booking their place in the semi-finals of the Leinster club football championship.

The Louth official blew up shortly after Garrycastle had pounced with an injury-time goal to leave just one point between the two sides.

Patrick Muvihill had managed to deceive Dan Nelligan with a deflected effort that dipped under the crossbar in the fourth minute of injury time.

Even given Dublin's collapse in the summer few would have predicted another victory for Westmeath opposition here.

Nonetheless Kilmacud Crokes manager Mick Dillon did not hold back after the game.

"They came back very hard at us at the start of the second half and got their tails up and we were fortunate to survive," he said.

Initially it was all Crokes, the Dublin side kicking nine of their 10 points from play, with all but one forward getting his name on the scoresheet.

In contrast, three of the visitors' four frees, the sum total of their efforts in the first half, came from the boot of Dessie Dolan.

Dolan has had a fantastic year for his county and after Crokes had threatened to run away with the game early on with five unanswered scores, he took matters into his own hands.

Though operating at full forward, Dolan played a freer role as the game wore on and everything went through him in the end.

Garrycastle, trailing 0-10 to 0-4 at half-time, upped their efforts after the break, which took them to within three points of the visitors.

Crokes, however, found their second wind with back-to-back points from Mark Vaughan and Declan Kelleher just about sufficient to take the home side over the winning line.

KILMACUD CROKES: D Nelligan; F Kennedy, C Flanagan, C Kelleher, P Griffin, L O'Heineachain (0-1), B Mc Grath, J Magee, Darren Magee; D Kelleher (0-4), C Murphy (0-2), L Mc Barron, M O'Keefe (0-2), M Daveron (0-2) M Vaughan (0-3, all frees). Subs: N Mc Grath for B Mc Grath (35 mins), F Armstrong for J Magee (50 mins).

GARRYCASTLE: C Mullin; T Mc Hugh, K Henson, P Rattigan, J Duignan, S O'Donoghue, E Mulvihill, G Dolan, D O'Shaughnessy, P Dillon (0-1), J Mc Ateer, C Ryan (0-1), A Daly (0-1), D Dolan (0-5), P Mulvihill (1-1). Subs: J Shaughnessy for Rattigan (6 mins), R Fox (0-1) for E Mulvihill (h-t), D Harte for Shaughnessy (h-t) D Ryan for G Dolan (51 mins), N Gavin for Mc Ateer (48 mins).

Referee: P Finnegan (Louth).