Summerhill into decider

Sunday"s SFC semi-final between Summerhill and Wolfe Tones certainly lived up to the hype as the teams provided the match-of-the-year with the underdogs emerging victorious following a heroic team display. Prior to the start of the championship local Bookmakers were offering odds of 8/1 about Summerhill winning the Keegan Cup and before Sunday"s semi-final the south Meath men had drifted to 9/1. That is an indicator of how strong Wolfe Tones were considered. Summerhill are no respecters of reputations and they fully deserved their win as they were by far the better team, played the more attractive football and had a greater hunger and desire. As well as playing remarkably well, the most pleasing aspect of the victory had to be the spirit displayed by Paraic Lyons and Mattie Kerrigan"s men. Leading by 1-8 to 0-5 at the break they were stunned in the opening 10 minutes of the second-half when Cian Ward and Stephen Sheppard struck magnificent goals either side of a Ward free to move Wolfe Tones into a 2-6 to 1-8 lead. Summerhill could have been forgiven if they had capitulated. Wolfe Tones were on the rise from their disappointing first-half slumber and they looked very dangerous. Breaks started to go in their favour and the Summerhill rearguard looked nervy. However, the Summerhill players are built from great character. Instead of lamenting the loss of a six-point interval lead they re-grouped. Veteran Mark O"Reilly settled the nerves with a spectacular point to restore parity and that gave Summerhill renewed hope. Had they lost heart and fell asunder it would have been a calamity because Summerhill were by far the better team. Their display was equally as spectacular as O"Mahonys on Saturday night, and maybe even better given the calibre of the opposition. Summerhill approached the game with a proper plan. They refused to squander possession easily and gave Ward very few opportunities to display his array of talents. Ward scored or was fouled almost every time he won possession, but it is testament to an outstanding marking job by Adrian Kenny that the in-form attacker only managed to get his hands on the ball on a few occasions. It would be unfair to pick out a single player for praise because it was such a complete team performance, but Kenny was magnificent. Micheal Gorman, Brian Ennis and Gary Rispin also played huge parts and with Maurice Kennedy and Conor Gillespie in charge at midfield Summerhill were always in the ascendancy. When the ball wasn"t won cleanly by the Summerhill pairing the second phase possession was picked up by the ever-alert and hugely industrious Michael Byrne. There was no huge lumping forward of the ball, every play was meticulously worked out. When Summerhill worked the ball to Stephen Kennedy and Rory Donnelly they tormented Wolfe Tones. Such was Stephen Kennedy"s brilliance that Richie Brady had to be replaced and Ciaran McLoughlin was handed the task of patrolling the young Summerhill star. McLoughlin also struggled and Ciaran Martin found the going tough on the sublime Donnelly. The Clare inter-county star was superb throughout and the question remains as to why he has not been approached to switch allegiances to the Royal County. Summerhill"s pace and penetration caused Wolfe Tones problems all afternoon. From the moment Maurice Kennedy opened the scoring inside 90 seconds it was obvious Summerhill were well tuned and more than capable of overturning the 1-10 to 2-13 reversal they suffered at the hands of Wolfe Tones in the group stages. Ward cancelled Summerhill"s opening score from a free, but by the end of the first-quarter Summerhill had ripped Wolfe Tones to shreds with Donnelly"s goal an exhibition in masterclass finishing following a surging 40-metre run. The Clare man and Stephen Kennedy also shared four points to give Summerhill a 1-5 to 0-1 margin after 14 minutes. Ward pointed from play and from a free either side of a Stephen Kennedy free, but the Summerhill man stretched his side"s lead to 1-8 to 0-3. The game was slipping away from Wolfe Tones, despite playing with the wind. Ward gave them hope with two points before the break to leave the 2006 champions 0-5 to 1-8 adrift at the resumption. Those scores were a boost for Wolfe Tones and they were gifted a goal five minutes into the second-half when Paul Rispin dropped the ball into the path of Ward and he made no mistake. Sheppard blasted a great goal after shocking defending and a remarkable Wolfe Tones recovery looked likely. However, Summerhill showed signs of champions as O"Reilly re-ignited the spark that prompted a famous victory with Stephen Kennedy kicking four late frees to clinch Summerhill"s place in a first SFC final since 1990. That one was also against Navan O"Mahonys. SCORERS Summerhill - S Kennedy 0-9, seven frees; R Donnelly 1-3, one free; M O"Reilly 0-1; M Kennedy 0-1. Wolfe Tones - C Ward 1-6, four frees; S Sheppard 1-0; B McGinn 0-1; N McLoughlin 0-1. THE TEAMS Summerhill - T McDonnell; P Rispin, G Rispin, A Kenny; M Gorman, B Ennis, C Malone; M Kennedy, C Gillespie; M Byrne, M O"Reilly, P Larkin; B Lyons, R Donnelly, S Kennedy. Subs - D Dalton for P Rispin 47 mins, A Lyons for Larkin 55m. Wolfe Tones - D Nolan; R Brady, C McLoughlin, A McKeown; B McGinn, E Harrington, S Sheppard; S Corrigan, G Beggy; A Fox, D McGrath, N McLoughlin; P Byrne, J Tiernan, C Ward. Subs - C Martin for Brady 14 mins, M Coleman for Beggy 52m, M McKeever for Byrne 58m. REFEREE Jack Gordon (Walterstown)