Midfield key for Kilmacud

The spirit was willing but the execution was weak. That is the tale of Na Fianna's effort to win their first Dublin county senior title since 1979 at Parnell Park on Saturday.

Kilmacud Crokes were impressive winners, but the margin of six points does not do justice to the performance of Na Fianna in the second half. They reduced Kilmacud's six-point half-time lead to a mere point, and a draw began to loom as a distinct possibility until Kilmacud re-imposed their superiority at midfield and pulled away again. Substitute Pat Burke clinched the issue with a last-minute goal.

This was an excellent match played in bright sunshine on an immaculate pitch before a crowd of close to 6,000. By and large the contest belied Dublin's problems at intercounty level, and, under the watchful eye of Tom Carr, several of the players on both sides gave notice of better things ahead. The excellence of John Costello and Maurice Leahy at midfield represented the main difference between the sides. This pair dominated from the start and all Na Fianna efforts to bypass them by going down the wings came to nought.

Further forward, Na Fianna's good intentions floundered as their attack found the experience of Conor Deegan, Jonathan McGee and Robbie Leahy too much for them. Leahy was given the task of marking Jason Sherlock and made an excellent job of it, holding him scoreless for the hour.

At the other end, Kilmacud corner forwards Mick O'Keeffe and Ray Cosgrove sliced through the Na Fianna defence almost at will. O'Keeffe opened the scoring with a free which was cancelled out by Ian Foley, but by the 15th minute Kilmacud were four points clear with points from Maurice Leahy, O'Keeffe (two) and Cosgrove. This pattern continued and by half-time Kilmacud were ahead by 10 points to four with only one of the Na Fianna points (scored by Dessie Farrell) coming from play.

After the break, points from Mick Galvin (a free), Farrell and Galvin again (another free) cut the margin to three. The football was highly competitive at this stage and referee Pat Tierney was busy keeping an eye on affairs as a number of "off the ball" incidents held up play.

Kilmacud missed several good chances, but were four points clear going into the last quarter. Na Fianna were not finished. A Galvin free, followed by another by Foley and a splendid score from Senan Connell from a Sherlock pass cut the lead to a point (0-12 to 0-11).

But Pat Burke, who replaced Robbie Brennan, began to make inroads into Na Fianna's territory, and points by him, Peter Ward and Cosgrove opened up a threepoint lead again before Burke took a shrewd long pass from Costello to drive the ball to the net.

KILMACUD CROKES: M Pender; C O'Dwyer, C Deegan, C Cleary; J O'Callaghan, J McGee, R Leahy (0-1); J Costello, M Leahy (0- 1); P Ward (0-2), M Dillon (0-1), I O'Sullivan (0-1); R Cosgrove (0-5), R Brennan, M O'Keeffe (0-4, one free, one sideline). Subs: P Burke (1-1) for Brennan (54 mins); C Redmond for Cleary (56 mins).

NA FIANNA: A Henchy; S McGlinchey, B Quinn, L Fay; P McCarthy, D Costello, T Lynch; S Forde, M Foley; M Galvin (0-5, three frees), S Connell (0-1), J Sherlock, D Farrell (0-2, one free), K Donnelly, I Foley (0-5, two frees). Subs: D Lynch for M Foley (44 mins).

Referee: P Tierney.