Cuala (Dublin) 1-17

Liam Mellows (Galway) 0-11

Cuala are just 60 minutes away from retaining the Tommy Moore Cup after substitute Brian Fitzgerald's late goal sealed an All-Ireland club SHC semi-final victory over Liam Mellows at Semple Stadium.

The Dalkey side's win paves the way for a mouth-watering All-Ireland decider on St. Patrick's Day between the last two champions after Na Piarsaigh beat Slaughtneil with 13 men earlier this afternoon. David Treacy and Con O'Callaghan scored 0-7 and 0-4 respectively as Cuala kicked for home in the third quarter when they outscored their Galway opponents by 0-6 to 0-1.

Dual star O'Callaghan settled the holders with a brace of early points to give them a double-scores lead, 0-4 to 0-2, after 10 minutes, with both of the Mellows' points coming from Adrian Morrissey frees. O'Callaghan and Treacy added further scores to extend Cuala's lead to 0-6 to 0-2 after 18 minutes before Morrissey nailed his third free and Conor Kavanagh scored Mellows' first from play in the 22nd minute.

Morrissey (free) and Nicky Kenny traded points before Morrissey (another free) left the minimum between the sides again. However, a Colum Shenon point had the Dubs two up, 0-8 to 0-6, at the short whistle.

Kerry native Darragh O'Connell could have had a goal within 10 seconds of the restart, but his rising shot flew over the crossbar. That was the catalyst for a fine spell of Cuala dominance which yielded further scores from Treacy, O'Callaghan and O'Connell.

Morrissey narrowed the gap to 0-7 to 0-12 after 38 minutes before a superb Sean Treacy effort made it a seven-point game. Kenneth Walsh made a great save to deny Mark Schutte at the expense of a '65 which David Treacy converted to leave Mattie Kenny's charges 0-15 to 0-8 up after 49 minutes.

Aonghus Callanan replied with an excellent point, but the Galway city side couldn't get any closer and their fate was sealed when Fitzgerald netted in injury-time.

Cuala - S Brennan; O Gough, Cian O'Callaghan, S Timlin; J Sheanon, S Moran, M Schutte (0-1); J Malone, D O'Connell (0-1); S Treacy (0-1), C Cronin, D Treacy (0-7, 4f, 1'65); C Sheanon (0-1), Con O'Callaghan (0-4), N Kenny (0-1). Subs: C Waldron for C Sheanon, D O'Flynn (0-1) for S Timlin, N Carty for N Kenny, B Fitzgerald (1-0) for M Schutte, R Tierney for Cian O'Callaghan.

Liam Mellows - K Walsh; C Reilly, M Conneely, S Morrissey; M Hughes, D Collins, S Barrett; J Hastings, K Lee; C Hynes, T Haran (0-1f), R Elwood; A Morrissey (0-7f), A Callanan (0-2), C Kavanagh (0-1). Subs: J Forde for C Hynes, D Fahy for R Elwood, S Killeen for C Kavanagh, B Leen for M Conneely, C Elwood for T Haran.

Referee - P O'Dwyer.

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