Cardiff St Colmcilles 1-15 Western Gaels Bristol 0-6

On Wednesday the 3rd of September, Cardiff met Western Gaels of Bristol in the county senior football semi-final. The rescheduled fixture had meant that Cardiff Manager Eoin Butler was without a number of first team regulars and was forced to test the depth of the squad at his disposal. The Western Gaels players made the trip to Cardiff and the game was marshalled by Eamon Mac Suimhne.

Cardiff started brightly, winning a lot of primary possession around the middle of the field and making inroads into the Gaels defence who found it hard to live with Cardiff’s direct running. Cardiff took hold of the game with very well worked scores coming from Sean Roddy, Marty Dolan and Martin Doyle in the early stages. Two points from Dan McCool and Martin Flood followed by a Jimmy Knowles goal before half time made it look like Cardiff might put up a big score on their rivals although a lack of composure in front of goal meant that the lads in the scoreboard could take a few minutes to have a kit-kat.

It was more of the same after the break with early scores from Amin Dadger and 2 from placed balls by Martin Flood mean that Cardiff had some breathing space. Alan Red Murphy who was introduced at half time kicked 3 lovely points before Kevin Smyth and Kevin Timothy stretched the Cardiff lead once more.

In the closing stages, 2 points from substitute Des Foley and another score from Amin Dadger saw Cardiff into their third county final in as many years, setting up a date with St Nicks of Bristol.

Cardiff St Colmcilles: Aidan Farrelly, Cathal Garvey, Barry McDonnell, Paddy McHale, Ollie Harney, Martin Doyle (0-1), Mark O’Neill, Sean Roddy (0-1), Kevin Smyth (0-1), Dan McCool (0-1), Jimmy Knowles (1-0), Marty Dolan (0-1), Amin Dadger (0-2), Martin Flood (0-3), Kevin Timothy (0-1).

Subs used: Des Foley (0-2) Alan Murphy (0-3) Johnny Hennessey