Junior final wins for St Vincent’s, St Sylvester’s and Raheny

St Vincent’s fought back from the brink to defeat Craobh Chiaráin 5-5 to 2-12 in the Dublin JFC ‘A’ final at Parnell Park on Saturday evening.

The Marino men came with a grandstand finish to edge out their Donnycarney neighbours in a dramatic finish.

Chiaráins held the upperhand in the opening half and led 0-9 to 1-3 at the interval with Robbie Mahon, Alan McCrabbe and Kieron McGowran to the fore.

With 20 minute left to play Craobh still held a six-point advantage but that all changed in the final quarter as Vinnies, inspired by former Dublin senior hurler Damien Russell, scored four goals.

Niall Brennan, Russell, the impressive Greg Murphy and Alan Moore, his second of the tie, all raised green flags to see Vinnies to victory.

In the JFC ‘B’ decider St Sylvester’s were too strong for Civil Service as they prevailed 0-14 to 0-8 at Parnell Park.

Paul Connolly with 0-6 (0-1f, 0-1 ‘45’) and Niall Kelly, three points from play, were the scorers-in-chief for Syls who led 0-10 to 0-3 early in the second half before scores from Derek Tansey and Neil Corkery raised Service hopes of a comeback.

However, it wasn’t to be as the Malahide men ran out deserving winners.

On Friday night at the Donnycarney venue Raheny put in a stirring opening to the second half before eventually defeating Round Tower Clondalkin 1-15 to 0-8.

Raheny held a narrow 0-6 to 0-4 interval lead with the Clondalkin side left to rue a succession of missed scoring opportunities.

However, Raheny scored 1-6 without reply in the opening 13 minutes of the second half to settle the outcome.

Shane Homan, Niall Fitzsimons, Colm Donegan (free), two excellent Colm Hanley efforts and a goal from the penalty spot by Donegan propelled Raheny into a commading 1-12 to 0-4 lead.

The introduction of Dublin minor of this year, Brian Howard, for the second half gave Raheny fresh impetus as they drove on to victory with Hanley and Kevin Doran excelling at midfield and John Ryan providing plenty of back-up from centre-back.

Tower’s battled to the end with points from the likes of Mark Healy, Ray Davis (two frees) and wing-back Simon Owens but Raheny had their work done at that stage.