Ranelagh Gaels 3-7 – St Marys Saggart 0-3

RANELAGH Gaels wrapped up a brilliant week with their second championship win inside six days at Bushy Park.

Last Tuesday the Gaels cruised past Naomh Mearnog in a first round replay and on Sunday they eased to a 13-point win over St Mary’s of Saggart to reach the quarter-final.

This Dublin Junior C Championship tie was as good as over inside the first quarter following three rapid fire goals.

Eamon Courtney, who missed the big win earlier in the week, got the first after barely a minute of play and shortly afterwards centre forward Fitz stormed through the middle to punch home the second.

When Tiernan set up Courtney for the third Mary’s heads dropped and it was a case of closing out the game for Ranelagh, who led by 3-2 to 0-2 at the break.

The weather on Sunday was appalling for football, with a driving wind whipping heavy rain across the pitch for the full hour so they key was to play it simple, which the home side did fantastically.

The defence was rock solid and limited Mary’s, who played the last ten minutes with 14 men after one of their own defenders saw red, to just a single point in the second half.

The fullback line dealt with any threat that came their way and the half backs in front of them showed their fitness and drive by continually launching into the attack.

With captain Brian Regan missing from midfield due to injury man of the match Denis Doolan was partnered by Alan Toolan in the centre and they produced a storming display.

Once again Johnny Conlon pulled the strings in attack and all of the forwards were full of running to give the Mary’s backs an uncomfortable afternoon and in better conditions they would have run up an even more impressive score.