Slaughtneil 0-12
St Vincent’s 0-10
By Orla Bannon at Pairc Esler
THE COLLECTIVE WILL of Slaughtneil, and the individual brilliance of Chrissy McKaigue, drove the Derry and Ulster champions to a stunning upset over St Vincent’s to advance to the AIB All-Ireland club football final.
The Dublin champions were highly fancied to win at Pairc Esler, but they couldn’t match Slaughtneil’s spirit and hunger.
McKaigue was their inspiration. He man-marked Diarmuid Connolly for most of the game and outscored him by four points to one.
McKaigue was immense, choosing his moments to drive forward and landed three monster scores in the second half with the wind.
St Vincent’s lost their discipline in the last quarter with black cards for Brendan Egan and Cormac Diamond, while Connolly and Ger Brennan were also booked in that spell.
With Connolly well held, most of the scoring for Vincent’s in the opening half was done by Mayo’s Enda Varley who scored two points from play and converted two frees.
Christopher Bradley scored the opening point for Slaughtneil after four minutes but Vincents had a good first quarter and led by 0-3 to 0-1, with Nathan Mullins and Connolly scoring from play.
The Dublin champions got a lot of men behind the ball forcing Slaughtneil to shoot from distance, which they did with mixed success.
Five first-half wides and Paul Bradley’s poor 25m free which dropped short were tempered with Christopher Bradley’s tremendous left-footed point to tie the scores at five points each.
Varley dropped the shoulder and his left-footed point edged Vincent’s back in front, 0-6 to 0-5, at the break.
Slaughtneil outscored St Vincent’s by five points to one in a 13 minute spell after the interval, McKaigue with two points and Christopher Bradley and Shane McGuigan also finding their range.
Vincent’s go-to men were being bottled up by Slaughtneil’s well-drilled defence but Gavin Burke found the space and accuracy to score twice with his left foot.
Vincent’s carved out the game’s only goal chance with Shane Carthy flicking the ball towards goal but goalkeeper Anton McMullan dived to his left to turn the ball round the post.
Varley pointed his only score of the second half but Vincent’s couldn’t get back on level terms. Slaughtneil confidently played out the clock and Paul Bradley’s injury-time free was the insurance point to see them through to a second All-Ireland final in three years.
Scorers for Slaughtneil: C McKaigue 0-4, C Bradley 0-3, Shane McGuigan 0-3 (2f), Paul Bradley 0-2 (2f)
Scorers for St Vincent’s: E Varley 0-5 (2f), G Burke 0-2, D Connolly, N Mullins, S Carthy 0-1 each
Slaughtneil
A McMullan; F McEldowney, B Rodgers, K McKaigue; P McNeill, C McKaigue, K Feeney; Patsy Bradley, P Cassidy; Shane McGuigan, Paul Bradley, M McGrath; C Bradley, Se McGuigan, C O’Doherty
Subs: R Bradley for Se McGuigan (54), B McGuigan for K McKaigue (BC, 64)
St Vincent’s
M Savage; M Concarr, J Curley, C Wilson; B Egan, G Brennan, Cameron Diamond; N Mullins, S Carthy; G Burke, D Connolly, Cormac Diamond; R Trainor, E Varley, T Quinn
Subs: A Martin for Trainor (46), J Feeney for Cormac Diamond (BC, 61), K Golden for Cameron Diamond (67), F Breathnach for Mullins (58), S McCusker for Egan (BC, 62)
Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon)
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