Basquel shines as Ballyboden open Dublin Championship defence with thumping win over Clontarf

Ballyboden St Enda’s 4-20 Clontarf 2-8

A view of the crowd during the Dublin County Senior Football Championship Round 1 match between Ballyboden St Enda's and Clontarf at Pairc Uí Mhurchu in Dublin. GAA matches continue to take place in front of a limited number of people in an effort to contain the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Frank Roche Email

July 25 2020 09:17 PM

THE scoreline never lies but sometimes it plays tricks on the mind. Ballyboden St Enda’s, the senior football champions of Dublin and Leinster, opened their county defence with a crushing 18-point victory over Clontarf at Páirc Uí Mhurchú this evening.

But youd never have guessed such a lopsided outcome after Clontarf capitalised on Boden’s initial disarray in defence to lead by 2-5 to 0-5 just over midway through the first half.

Clontarf’s two marquee footballers – Mayo defender Chris Barrett making his debut after transferring from Belmullet, and Jack McCaffrey on his first competitive outing since opting off the Dublin panel – were both prominent during their early dominance.

But the real star man was corner-forward Kevin Lillis, who left the Boden full-back line chasing shadows as he rattled off 2-2 from play (which could easily have been 3-1) during the visitors’ opening salvo.

Conal Keaney’s 0-3 from play had kept the champions within touching distance during their early struggles, but then a stunning Warren Egan goal offered a lifeline and they stormed back to parity (1-9 to 2-6) at the break.

Colm Basquel of Ballyboden St Enda's scores his side's second goal from a penalty during the Dublin County Senior Football Championship Round 1 match against Clontarf at Pairc Uí Mhurchu. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Thereafter, several early wides drained the confidence from ‘Tarf. Ross McGarry (who finished with 0-4) and the electrifying Colm Basquel (1-10, including a 53rd minute penalty) put the game well beyond reach.

Further injury-time goals from Egan and sub Simon Lambert added salt to Clontarf wounds, and will leave Ballyboden in fine spirits ahead of their next group three round-robin fixture away to St Vincent’s on Wednesday week.

SCORERS:

Ballyboden: C Basquel 1-10 (1-0 pen, 5f), W Egan 2-0, C Keaney (1f), R McGarry 0-4 each, S Lambert 1-0, D O’Mahoney, T Hayes 0-1 each.