BALLYBODEN St Enda's manager Liam O'Dwyer should have bought a Lotto ticket last night -- because a combination of luck and fate ensured his decision to send substitute Dara Shovlin into action paid off handsomely for the Dublin champions.

Shovlin was only on the pitch about 30 seconds when he found himself with ball in hand and racing towards the Rathnew goal in a one-to-one duel with goalkeeper Peter Dignam.

Dignam did all he could to close down Shovlin, but the Ballyboden player calmly stroked the ball low into the net.

The game was not quite over at this stage, but this was the turning point that drove Ballyboden through the last 14 minutes of normal time.

Two separate outbreaks of confrontation in added time led to an untidy and undignified finish to a hard-fought game, and resulted in red cards for Ballyboden midfielder Declan O'Mahony and Rathnew's James Stafford.

brighter

First, the brighter side, at least for the Dublin champions, as they reflect on winning this competitive quarter-final.

Shovlin's goal brought Ballyboden from trailing by a point -- 0-9 to Rathnew's 1-7 -- to leading by two points, and for the last 15 minutes, including stoppage time, there was only one more score in the game.

That was a 57th-minute point by another Ballyboden sub, Paul Galvin.

So how big a call was it to throw on the subs, especially Shovlin, for Ballyboden team boss O'Dwyer?

O'Dwyer smiled at the suggestion it was an inspired decision.

"Fair play to Dara Shovlin, he's been chomping at the bit all week and all season to get into the team. He took his chance when he came in today.

"We made it very tough for ourselves, but give credit to Rathnew -- they made it hard for us all over the field.

"Just when we thought that we had the hard work done and we thought we were going to move on from there, fair play to Leighton Glynn. He scored a terrific goal for Rathnew.

"We had to dig deep again, but this year, all along, this team hasn't known when it's beaten," he said.

There was little to choose between the teams in a dour first half which ended with Rathnew leading by 0-4 to 0-3.

Corner forward Tommy Gill got two points from frees, and Leighton Glynn and Noel Mernagh scored two from play. Ballyboden's contribution came from two frees scored by Conal Keaney and another by Andy Kerin. So far, so boring.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half made one wonder why stoppage time had arrived so early -- because all that seemed to be happening was referee Maurice Deegan blowing his whistle for frees by both teams.

Amid the stop-start grinding, Rathew added two more points from frees by Gill while Keaney scored another for Ballyboden, leaving the scores at 0-4 to 0-6 after 40 minutes.

The tension rose a notch when Gill scored again from a free on 42 minutes to stretch Rathnew's lead to three points, but Ballyboden dug deep.

Declan O'Mahony slammed over a superb long-range point in the 46th minute to be followed in quick succession by points by Simon Lambert and Keaney.

Rathnew's Glynn tipped the scales in his team's favour when he popped in a goal, but Ballyboden's Keaney and Kenny Naughton scored points at the other end to leave the Dubs a point adrift.

Soon afterwards came the crucial goal by Shovlin and sub Galvin's clinching point.

Within the next five to six minutes it got messy, with guys hurtling into each other on and off the ball, and two separate group tussles that ended with the two red cards.

But the Dublin champions had done enough to set up a semi-final clash with Westmeath champions Garrycastle.

Scorers -- Ballyboden St Enda's: C Keaney 0-5 (3f), D Shovlin 1-0, A Kerin (f), D O'Mahony, S Lambert, K Naughton, P Galvin 0-1 each. Rathnew: T Gill 0-5 (5f), L Glynn 1-1, N Mernagh 0-1.

Ballyboden St Enda's -- D Walsh; C Dolan, I Clarke, M O'Sullivan; D Nelson, J O'Hara, S Durkin; M McAuley, D O'Mahony; S Lambert, D Davey, C Smyth; C Keaney, K Naughton, A Kerin. Subs: D Kiernan for C Dolan (44), P Galvin for A Kerin (45), D Shovlin for D Davey (56), C Hiney for K Naughton (58).

Rathnew --P Dignam; A Clarke, D Power, C Healy; B Mernagh, S Canavan, S Byrne; J Stafford, S Kavanagh; R Dignam, N Mernagh, E Doyle; T Gill, M Doyle, L Glynn. Subs: M Byrne for E Doyle (40), P Ronan for C Healy (51), D Franey for M Doyle (54).

Ref -- M Deegan (Laois)

Irish Independent