St Senan's overcome Gerald Griffins to reach Limerick IFC semi-final

IT mightn't have served up many scores but the Estuary Epic wasn't short of drama, incident, intensity and mood swings as St Senans' late rally swept them into the intermediate football semi-final at the expense of neighbours Gerald Griffins on a 0-10 to 1-5 scoreline in Rathkeale's Bog on Saturday.

And they certainly didn't do it the easy way as they conceded an unfortunate own goal, picked up three black cards and five yellow cards, conceded twenty-seven frees and missed four goal chances before the last four scores of a highly entertaining 77 minutes of football transformed a deficit of two into a lead of two.

Losing county panelists Dara Noonan before the game and Tommy Griffin at half-time to injury didn't help the Ballyhahill side's cause but they still looked the more likely of the pair to progress right up to the injury time rally.

Keeping their discipline better, particularly in the tackle, and feeding off a star performance from Colm McSweeney in the middle, they were able to respond when Senans went ahead for the first time after the restart and maintained their shape once they recovered their lead.

However, they were done in the end by the greater fury Foynes could generate once they got the dander up, feeding off the technique and vision of James Naughton and the power of Adam Kearns as they finally wore down the opposition.

It mightn't have been the smoothest of performances as the card count and the free count suggest but, when their backs were against the wall and the breaks weren't going their way, Senan's dug deep into their reserves of spirit and found enough to grind out the result.

The sides were tied 0-5 to 1-2 at half-time.

SCORERS: SAINT SENAN'S: James Naughton 0-3 (2 frees, 1 '45'), Darren Lawlor 0-2, Séamus McSweeney, Senan O'Brien, Adam Kearns, Killian O'Mahony, Raymond Flaherty 0-1 each; GERALD GRIFFINS: Dave Finnerty 1-0 (own goal), Gerard Stack 0-2 (2 frees), Brian Long, Zach Behan, Paul Brouder 0-1 each.