Connolly inspires Vincent’s to victory

ST VINCENT'S 3-12 ST SYLVESTER'S 1-9

Reigning champions St Vincent's highlighted that they have no intention of surrendering their crown without a fight when they overcame St Sylvester's in Wednesday night's Dublin SFC second round clash at Parnell Park.

Connolly, who gave one of the greatest individual displays in last March's club final, gave yet another exhibition of his outstanding array of talents in this encounter.

Apart from scoring a sublime goal in the first half, his vision, timing, unselfishness and execution of the pass carved open the determined Malahide lads for two second half goals.

Despite the very pacey Alan Foy's seventh minute goal Vincent's held the upperhand in their early exchanges before Connolly's superb 13th minute goal gave his side a 1-5 to 1-1 lead.

However, Syls were not stunned and rallied impressively to trail by just 1-7 to 1-5 at the break with goalkeeper Damien McDonnell converting a long range free, Ross Hazley, Gary Sweeney and Micheál McCarthy all slotting points.

But this night belonged to Connolly who midway into the opening half after collecting possession 55 metres from the Sylvester's goal accelerated to outflank the Syls defence before offloading to Tomás Quinn who played the ball back into his path to volley to the net. The video highlight in full is below.

In the second half two brilliant long-range handpasses opened up the Syls defence for both Ruairi Trainor and Shane Carty to raise green flags.

While Sylvester's did well at midfield they could not keep the Vincent's defence on the back foot as they showed all the signs of side playing with great self-belief as Ger Brennan, returning from injury, led by example at the heart of the Vincent's rearguard.

SCORERS – St Vincent’s: R Trainor 1-3, S Carty, D Connolly 1-1 each, T Quinn 0-3 (0-2f), G Burke, C Dorney, E Fennell, C Diamond 0-1 each. St Sylvester’s: A Foy 1-0; M McCarthy 0-3 (0-2f), R Hazley 0-2, G Sweeney, D McDonnell (0-1f), G McArdle, J Coughlan 0-1 each.

ST VINCENT’S: M Savage; K Bonnie, J Curley, H Gill; B Egan, G Brennan, M Concarr; E Fennell, D Murphy; G Burke, D Connolly, S Carty; R Treanor, C Dorney, T Quinn. Subs: T Diamond for Dorney (47), Cormac Diamond for Carty (55), M Moore for Curley (58), A Baxter for Treanor (59).

ST SYLVESTER’S: D McDonnell; J Peacock, F Carney, L Murphy; G McArdle, B Sexton, C McIntyre; R Hazley, J Coughlan; G Sweeney, S O’Connor, A Foy; M McCarthy, E Fanning, R Palmer. Subs: N Coughlan for Palmer (39), M Hazley for Foy and B Ryan for Peacock (53), C Roche for J Coughlan (58).

REF: J King (Garda).

And here is 'that' Connolly goal, brought to you exclusively by DubsTV.