Ballyboden St. Enda's manager Liam Hogan will face his native Coolderry next Sunday after the five-in-a-row Dublin champions withstood a second half fightback from Clonkill in yesterday's AIB Leinster club SHC quarter-final at Cusack Park.

Ballyboden St. Enda's (Dublin) 2-12
Clonkill (Westmeath) 1-13

The visitors looked set for a comfortable victory when two goals in the space of three minutes late in the first half helped them to a seven-point interval lead, but just as they had done against Castletown-Geoghegan in the Westmeath decider, Clonkill staged a determined second half recovery which left their highly-rated opponents hanging on for victory.

There was nothing to separate the sides in the early stages, though All Star goalkeeper Gary Maguire needed to be at his best to deny Brendan Murtagh an early goal. The sides were level on 0-4 apiece before a mistake by Clonkill 'keeper Stephen Nulty gifted Conor McCormack the opening goal in the 24th minute. Two minutes later, Simon Lambert grabbed a second to send 'Boden into the break leading 2-7 to 0-6.

The Westmeath underdogs refused to lie down, however, and were back in contention within three minutes of the restart thanks to a Brendan Murtagh goal. The accurate free-taking of Paul Ryan kept Ballyboden in front, but Clonkill kept plugging away and Eoin Price was denied an equalising goal by a terrific Darragh Spain block with two minutes remaining.

Andrew Mitchell and Murtagh added late points to leave the minimum in it before Ryan's injury-time free proved the insurance score for a mightily relieved 'Boden outfit, who will face Offaly champions Coolderry for a place in the provincial final at Parnell Park next Sunday.

Scorers - Ballyboden St Enda's: P Ryan 0-8 (5f, 1 '65'), C McCormack, S Lambert 1-1 each, M Travers, D O'Connor 0-1 each. Clonkill: B Murtagh 1-5 (1 f), A Mitchell (1f, 1 '65'), A McGrath (3 fs) 0-3 each, A Price, A Dowdall 0-1 each.

Ballyboden St Enda's - G Maguire; S Nagle, D Spain, M O'Sullivan; M Travers, S Nolan, D Curran; D Curtain, S Durkin; J Doody, S Lambert, D O'Connor; E Carroll, C McCormack, P Ryan. Subs: N McMorrow for Doody (39), T Sweeney for Carroll (41), D Sweeney for Nagle (53), P Buckeridge for Curran (59).

Clonkill - S Nulty; S Cleary, A Price, J Fagan; K Reilly, P Dowdall, A Mitchell; E Price, L Folan; A Price, A McGrath, A Dowdall; S Loughlin, B Murtagh, E Loughlin. Subs: C Scally for A Price (inj, 39), L Donoghue for Folan (50).

Ref - F Smith (Meath). Tweet

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