Ballinderry Shamrocks booked their place in the semi-final of the All-Ireland Club Senior Football Championship with a hard-fought 3-9 to 2-7 quarter-final win over Kingdom Kerry Gaels in London this afternoon.
The Derry and Ulster champions looked to be heading for a comfortable victory against 14-man Kingdom, who had full-back Peadar Stack sent off for two yellow cards in the first half, but a strong fightback brought the home side back into the game.
Collie Devlin scored the first of two his goals in the eighth minute and points from Ryan Bell, Conleth Gilligan, Dermot McGuckin, Devlin and Daniel McKinless gave the visitors a comfortable 1-5 to 0-1 half time lead.
A McKinless goal and a second from Bradley, with three points from the home side in between, appeared to give the Derry side an easy run-in but the Kingdom rallied strongly with two goals and three points to set up an exciting finish.
However, Ballinderry settled themselves and points by Conor Nevin and substitute Fintan secured the win.
Ballinderry now play St Vincent’s from Dublin in the last four on 15 Feburary next. The other semi-final will see Mayo champions Castlebar Mitchelss take on Dr Crokes from Kerry.
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