Disappointing day for Dunboyne

There was a rather humbling experience for Meath champions Dunboyne in Pairc Tailteann this afternoon as they were sent packing from the Leinster Club SFC race at the quarter-final hurdle by Dublin's Kilmacud Crokes who had 16 points to spare, 2-17 to 0-7.
A strong finish to a disappointing opening half suggested Dunboyne might make a match of it after the resumption, but two Paul Mannion goals in the space of four minutes in the third quarter put paid to any outside chance of a Royal upset.
It all started so well for Dunboyne when Stuart Lowndes drilled over the black spot inside 30 seconds, but then Kilmacud Crokes took over, dominated possession and for the remainder of the half benefitted from some generous refereeing from Maurice Deegan.
Seven of Kilmacud's 10 first-half points came from frees, five of which were awarded for rather innocous fouls from which Deegan derived no advantage had accrued.
After Dara Mullin levelled for the Stillorgan side in the fifth minute they went ahead from a Pat Burke free following Gavin McCoy's foul on Mannion.
Seconds later Kilmacud went ahead when Cian O'Dwyer fly kicked Mullin's goalbound effort over the bar and by the end of the opening quarter that advantage was out to 0-6 to 0-1 as two frees from Mannion and one from Burke all found their range.
Dunboyne struggled to muster an attack in that spell and were grateful that Burke was off target before Andrew McGowan was gifted the freedom of Pairc Tailteann to waltz forward from full-back to make it 0-7 to 0-1.
The Dublin champions were in cruise control, but then a sense of pride seemed to kick in for Dunboyne. Their tackling became crisper and passing accuracy improved which ultimately led to a fine score for Craig Lowndes.
Kilmacud responded with another Mannion free after Sean Ryan picked up a black card for a foul on Shane Horan, but instead of lamenting losing their corner-back Dunboyne improved in the closing minutes of the half with a brilliant score from Robbie McCarthy followed by a well-struck David McEntee making it 0-4 to 0-8 on the half-hour.
In first-half injury-time Burke put five points between the sides with another free, but excellent work by McCarthy set up Cathal Finn for a Dunboyne response before Burke tapped over another 'no advantage' free to ensure a 0-10 to 0-5 interval lead for Kilmacud Crokes.
After giving themselves hope with a strong finish to the opening half Dunboyne never got going after the break and managed just two further points as Kilmacud Crokes ran riot adding another 2-7 to their tally.
It was ominous inside two minutes of the restart when Conor Casey was denied a goal by a brilliant tackle from Jack Donnelly. 
Shane McEntee went close to finding the net from long distance when his centre evaded everyone and skipped narrowly wide, but it was a rare fright for Kilmacud.
They put the issue beyond doubt in the 40th minute when Mannion converted a penalty after a couple of Dunboyne defenders were deemed to have illegally halted his run.
Three minutes later Mannion had the ball in the net again after Shane McEntee lost possession when moving from defence to make it 2-10 to 0-5.
It was all about damage limitation for Dunboyne at that stage. Stuart Lowndes clipped over his second point and Seamus Lavin also found the range 13 minutes later, but in between those scores three more points from Mannion (two frees) and one each for Cian O'Connor and Callum Pearson put 14 points between the sides.
Kilmacud heaped further misery with the last two scores of the contest from Cillian O'Shea and Stephen Williams to ensure another miserable and shortlived Leinster SFC campaign for the Meath champions.

Kilmacud Crokes – David Nestor; Liam Flatman, Andrew McGowan (0-1), Aidan Jones; Cian O'Connor (0-1), Cillian O'Shea (0-1), Ross McGowan; Craig Dias, Conor Casey; Shane Cunningham, Paul Mannion (2-6 1-0 penalty, five frees), Shane Horan; Pat Burke (0-4 frees), Dara Mullin (0-2), Callum Pearson (0-1). Subs – Ronan Ryan for Jones 39 mins, Kevin Dyas for Horan 44m, Stephen Williams (0-1) for Mannion, Tom Fox for Cunningham, Mark Vaughan for Burke all 53m, Nathan Nolan for C Dias 56m.

Dunboyne – Cian Flynn; Sean Ryan, Shane McEntee, Cian O'Dwyer; Cathal Finn (0-1), Gavin McCoy, Seamus Lavin (0-1); Jack Donnelly, Niall Jones; Stuart Lowndes (0-2), David McEntee (0-1 free), Liam Byrne; Robbie McCarthy (0-1), Ronan Jones, Craig Lowndes (0-1). Subs – Jack Scannell for Donnelly 41 mins, David Gallagher for N Jones 46m, Michael Dunne for D McEntee, Shane Comaskey for McCarthy both 53m, Stephen Moran for O'Dwyer 56m. Black card – S Ryan (replaced by Conor Doran 24m). 

Referee – Maurice Deegan (Laois).