RANELAGH GAELS 3-9 PORTOBELLO 0-8

RANELAGH Gaels moved into the second round of the Dublin Junior C Football Championship with a classy win over Portobello at Bushy Park on Sunday.

The Gaels came into this game on the back of two consecutive losses so the pressure was on to deliver the goods.

And this is exactly what manager Liam O’Hagan’s team did with probably their best footballing performance of the season so far.

Ranelagh hammered Portobello at Leinster Road in a League game earlier in the year, but the visitors were a very different team on this occasion and this contest was in the melting pot for long stages.

For most of a tense second half the gap between the teams hovered around four points and Porto’ missed a brilliant goal chance when they had the Gaels on the backfoot.

Cornerback Denis Crehan also had a great goal-line stop to keep the home team’s noses in front.

With Waterford football on such a high at the moment it should be no surprise that the Deise connection proved the difference in the end with final quarter goals from Danny, who got the first early in the game in a great display, and The Doc sealing the deal.

The fullback line of Denis, Martin Egan and James Galvin was excellent against a physical Porto’ attack.

The halfbacks got things moving well and Ian Naughton delivered a great performance on the wing, as did half forward Tim Cronin.

Gaels’ work-rate throughout was exceptional and towards the end the many nights of training told as they had fitter legs than the opposition.

With several key players still to come back from injury the management look like having a selection headache for the rest of the year, which can only be a good thing.

The second round is scheduled for next Sunday afternoon away to the winner of the Clontarf-Liffey Gaels tie and for further details check this website in the coming days.