St. Vincent's (Dublin) 3-9

Garrycastle (Westmeath) 1-10

Reigning All-Ireland champions St. Vincent's survived a huge scare from Garrycastle at Parnell Park to progress to another Leinster club football final against Rhode on December 14.

Having surrendered a 10-point lead, the 1/8 favourites needed a late penalty from Tomas Quinn to see off the 2012 All-Ireland finalists. Quinn top-scored for the winners with 2-2, a tally which was equalled by fellow veteran and Garrycastle talisman Dessie Dolan, who grabbed 1-5, including 1-2 from play.

It was all St. Vincent's in the first 25 minutes as they eased into a 2-6 to 0-2 lead. Quinn crashed home an early goal and they could have had a few more before Shane Carthy eventually raised their second green flag in the 24th minute.

At this juncture, the Westmeath champions were staring at an embarrassing defeat, but they rolled up their sleeves and hit four unanswered points per James Dolan (two), Dessie Dolan and Justin Barrett to leave six in it, 0-6 to 2-6, at the interval.

The Athlone side continued their incredible fightback on the restart with Dolan notching up a brace of points before showing Ger Brennan a clean pair of heels to rattle the net in the 37th minute. Five minutes later, Michael Monaghan split the posts and Garrycastle were back on level terms.

Crucially, though, they weren't able to take the lead and the shell-shocked Marino men were able to reply with steadying scores from Quinn and Brennan before Quinn converted a 55th minute penalty after Ruairi Trainor was taken down by goalkeeper Cathal Mullin, who picked up a black card for his troubles.

Garrycastle threw the kitchen sink at the locals in the closing stages, but they managed to hang on with Quinn kicking the insurance point in injury-time.

St. Vincent's - M Savage; K Bonnie, J Curley, H Gill; B Egan, G Brennan (0-2), M Concarr; E Fennell, D Murphy; G Burke (0-2), D Connolly (0-2, 1f), S Carthy (1-1); R Treanor, C Dorney, T Quinn (2-2, 1-0pen, 0-1f). Subs: Cormac Diamond for D Murphy, Cameron Diamond for C Dorney, Tiernan Diamond for G Burke, M Loftus for E Fennell, S Byrne for G Brennan (BC).

Garrycastle - C Mullin; J Donohoe, M McCallion, A Fox; K Henson, J Gaffey, G McCallion; J Barrett (0-1), A Browne; M Guiheen (0-1), D Dolan (1-5, 0-3f), D Rushe; M Monaghan (0-1), G Dolan, J Dolan (0-2). Subs: A Gardiner for D Rushe, D O'Shaughnessy for A Browne, J Duignan for A Gardiner, S O'Connell for C Mullin (BC), C Cosgrove for M Monaghan.

Referee - J Hickey.

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