14-man O'Connell's find a second wind
Having failed to score for over 11 minutes, Na Piarsaigh somehow had to find three points or even a goal in the dying minutes, but Cormac Malone gave them hope when his goal-bound shot was tipped over by Connolly in the last minute. Conor Dillon reduced the gap to the minimum in the third minute of stoppage time, but there was no time left for Na Piarsaigh to hunt out an equaliser as O'Connell's booked a semi-final showdown with O'Raghallaigh's.minutes of normal time remaining.
All that second-half drama seemed a world away in the first period when both sides struggled to cope with the conditions or the occasion.
Sean Connolly; Conor Byrne, PJ Tuite, David Doyle; Killian Shields, Jackie Agnew, Stephen Hoey; Mark Stanfield 0-1, Colm Kearney 0-2; Salem Rifaie, Paul McKeever 0-2, Dean Stanfield; Niall Conlon, John Flanaga 0-1, Stuart Reynolds 1-5 (0-1f). Subs: Sean Cairns for D Stanfield ( 51), Andrew Sharkey for J Flanagan (60+).
Barry Teather; Joe Woods 0-1, Ronan McCartney, Chris Cotter; Michael Woods, Gary O'Hare, Damien McGeeney; Eamonn McAuley 0-1, Donal Hegarty; Gerard Smyth 0-2f, Robbie Nash, Alan McCartney; Des McCann 1-3 (0-1f, 01 s/l), Simon Kelly 0-1, Cormac Malone 01. Subs: David Boyle for R Nash (53), John Garvey for S Kelly (57), Conor Dillon 0-1 for G Smyth. REFEREE: Darren Ward.
