Rathnew retained their Wicklow senior football championship crown in Wicklow with a 10-minute spell of scoring at the start of the second half of the final at Aughrim yesterday.
They started the second half trailing challengers Dunlavin by 0-7 to 0-3 but in that 10-minute blitz they banged over four unanswered points to draw level and then followed up with Kevin Gill's goal, which he finished to the net after full forward Ronan Coffey chipped the goalkeeper.
Rathnew's whirlwind start to the second half left Dunlavin chasing the game from the 41st minute onwards. They applied some pressure on the Rathnew goal for the next 10 minutes but were denied a much-needed goal by Rathnew goalkeeper, Tommy Murphy, who brought off a fine save from Conor O'Sullivan's stinging left-foot shot on 50 minutes.
Rathnew: T Murphy; S Manley, E White, C Murphy; E Franey, M Coffey, V Collard; D Coffey (0-5, all frees), D Byrne; P Doyle, T Doyle (0-1), K Gill (1-0); B Murphy (0-2), R Coffey (0-1), M Doyle (0-1). Subs: J Snell for R Murphy, T McDonald for S Manley.
Dunlavin: R Daniels; L Spring, R Allen, D Moore; S Miley, P Allen, S Birchall; M Murtagh (0-1), T English; T Harney, C O'Sullivan 0-1, D Carty; A O'Sullivan (0-3), N Allen, K Cunningham (0-4, 3 frees, 1 45).
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