The seniors overcame Lucan to book a place in the SHC semi final against St Judes on Saturday 11th October. The match report is below with thanks to our friends at Grasroots GAA.ie

A superb second half showing from O’Toole’s saw them emerge as facile victors in the end as Lucan simply failed to turn up in the second half. The Carton brothers, in particular Michael and Conor, were the star turns in attack for the men from Blunden Drive.

The game settled into a clear pattern early on with the Lucan half backs Johnny Byrne and Matthew McCaffrey providing a solid platform to launch attacks in the first quarter. Byrne in particular had a telling influence throughout the game and with five minutes gone he launched a super ball on top of Aidan Roche who finished with aplomb.

With 15 minutes on the clock the score stood at five points apiece with the dangerous Conor Carton accounting for two of O’Toole’s scores, Conor would finish the evening with a princely sum of nine points. In true championship hurling style this was a ferociously contested game in the first half, with every ball being fought for with serious grit and determination.

A feature of the first 30 minutes was the amount of possession Lucan had around the middle, with Johnny McCaffrey in particular picking up a lot of scraps around the middle. The massive O’Toole’s defensive effort which started in the full forward line and was maintained all the way back to goalkeeper Brendan McLoughlin meant that Lucan never had an easy route to goal.

At times in the first period the two teams cancelled each other out and O’Toole’s, for all their endeavor defensively, failed to mount a period of sustained pressure on Lucan. As the half wore on Michael Carton began to have a big influence on proceedings and, similar to all of his teammates, Michael’s first touch was superb and he displayed an impressive range of passing.

Lucan goalkeeper David Quinn, who was arguably on the night Lucan’s most consistent performer, was called into action in first half injury time, producing a fantastic save to deny the raiding Graham Morris scoring the game’s first goal. This save brought an end to the first half proceedings and left Lucan leading by two points, 0-07 to 0-05.

What transpired in the second half was a completely different game. O’Toole’s came out and completely dominated Lucan defensively and overran them in attack. The half back line, with Ger O’Meara in particular, stepped up and shut Lucan’s supply lines off. With Conor Carton’s accuracy from frees unerring and Lucan’s discipline steadily declining, the men from Coolock completed a five point swing by the 40th minute to lead 13-10.

The manner of Lucan’s capitulation was quite extraordinary. In the first half they operated well around the middle with Johnny McCaffrey, Johnny Byrne and Sean McClelland all playing particularly well for Sarsfields. The second half saw only goalkeeper David Quinn emerge with any plaudits as O’Toole’s ruthlessly tore through the weak Lucan resistance. With 46 minutes gone, O’Toole’s were enjoying a five point lead. This lead then swelled to eight and the contest was effectively over with the impressive Christy Mulligan skating through to fire in the game’s only goal. Mulligan, similar to Conor Carton in the first half, dropped out around the middle and began to pick scores off from distance.

The final 15 minutes were a procession; Lucan offered almost no challenge to a now rampant O’Toole’s side. Carton continued to split the posts with superb accuracy from dead balls. The scoreboard was kept somewhat respectable in the 59th minute when Lucan ‘keeper David Quinn again rushed out and stopped a certain goal from the stick of Conor Carton after he had been released by Graham Mahon.

This margin of victory, which in the end was 10 points, will obviously please the O’Toole’s management team and supporters alike but perhaps the most impressive facet of the whole performance was the manic work rate they saw from their players. Time after time when there was a 50:50 ball to be won, an O’Toole’s man emerged with the ball. This trait augurs well for the rest of their campaign and there is a real sense now that O’Toole’s could have a serious input in the destination of the Dublin SHC title in 2014.

 

Star Man:

Michael Carton (O’Toole’s)

It’s hard to single out one O’Toole’s man following such a fantastic team performance in the 2nd half. However, looking at the performance overall, one man stood out, Michael Carton. The evergreen Mick Carton got on a mountain of ball throughout the 60 minutes, roving right across the half forward and midfield area causing problems at every juncture. Despite finishing with just a solitary point, Michael led by example and set the tone for the massive O’Toole’s team performance in that 2nd half.

 

O’Toole’s Squad List:

B McLoughlin; R walker: K Ryan; Paddy Carton; O Darcy; P Brennan; G O’Meara(0-01); A Morris(0-03); G Morris (0-01); M Carton(0-01); D Farrelly; P Carton; C Carton(0-09); P Bradshaw (0-01); C Mulligan (1-04).

 

Lucan Sarsfields Squad List:

D Quinn; A Phelan; B Aird; S McClelland; J Byrne; P Kelly; M McCafferey; M May(0-01); J McCafferey(0-01); J Bellew; E Ó Conghaile(0-02); T Somers(0-03, 3 frees); A Roche(0-02); C Crummy(0-01); A Duff(0-02) T Lee(0-01).