“I’ve been playing senior 14 or 15 years… I thought this chance was gone”

Club GAA in south west Dublin will be humming after this set of results on Saturday.

The Dublin football club championship final will be played out between Thomas Davis and Ballyboden St Enda's after a day of high drama at Parnell Park. Earlier in the day, Colm Basquel registered 1-4 for Ballyboden as they came back from six points down to St Jude's, at half-time, to win 2-10 to 1-10. With 'Boden making another Dublin football final, they were able to sit back and watch as Thomas Davis sought to dethrone reigning champs Kilmacud Crokes. The Tallaght side trailed 0-4 to 0-1 in the first half but the scores were level at 0-6 apiece by the break. Crokes lost Craig Dias and Dublin forward Paul Mannion to injury but worse was to follow. Within a minute of the restart, a high ball into the Crokes square saw goalkeeper David Nestor fumble and Ciaran Farrelly was there to slam that loose ball home. https://twitter.com/RTEgaa/status/1188167177444003840 Veteran midfielder Brendan Kirby added a second Thomas Davis goal, soon after, and Paul Kelly's side ran out 2-12 to 1-10 victors. Following the game, which sees Thomas Davis back in a Dublin final for the first time since 1991, Kirby told RTE:

"We were confident in ourselves coming in... We've been on a journey over the last couple of years, we just built momentum, momentum and when we have our full team together we can compete with them all. "I've been playing senior 14 or 15 years and I thought this chance was gone to be honest. It's phenomenal."

[caption id="attachment_207513" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] David Keogh of Thomas Davis celebrates. (Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile)[/caption] A Senior 1 final awaits against their near rivals, Ballyboden, just 12 months after they clinched the Senior 2 title. "The one thing we don't lack is teamwork, and a collective spirit," said Kelly. "We've a lot of football skills as well as I think people would have seen here today." The final will be hotly anticipated, and contested.

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