This was the cliched game of two halves! St Nicholas started much the brighter and dominating in midfield, repeatedly pushed the home side backwards. On 8 minutes James Scanlon went narrowly wide, and a delayed pass found Jack Downey offside as he finished to the net on 10 minutes. Then came the breakthrough, a very neat move down their right-hand side saw Downey once again on his own to emphatically finish to put the away side one up after only 12 minutes. Suirside try as they may simply could not get out of their own half. St Nicholas continued to press and inevitably they were rewarded when a clearing header from a corner found Aaron Blanche, on the edge of the area to shoot through a crowd of players to make it two nil on 24 minutes. Suirside changed things around and came much more into the game as it seemed the away sides energy dropped. Dylan Price broke through the middle and somehow the St Nicholas keeper got a touch to put it onto the crossbar and out for a corner. On 42 minutes a very promising raid down the Suirside left saw Luke O’Brien cross for Dylan Price whose knockdown was met first time by Darragh Cronin who shot narrowly wide and so the half time whistle came. Then came the Suirside onslaught as the home side gained control in midfield and pressed forward. On 53 minutes a piledriver from Jason Coffey brought an excellent save from the St Nicholas keeper, Bradley McNabb. 58 minutes saw a great effort from Gavin Sheehan go narrowly over the top. The home side were rewarded on 62 minutes when Darragh Cronin, excellent all afternoon, calmly finished to make it 2–1.  Suirside kept pressing for the equaliser and with St Nicholas replying on counter attacks, a brilliant piece of individual skill saw Sean Daly lob the Suirside keeper from all of 35 yards to restore the away team’s 2 goal cushion on 65 minutes.  The home side never gave in and pressed their opponents back and back. Dylan Price raced onto a through ball on 75 minutes and made no mistake to reduce the deficit to a single goal. What a final 15 minutes we had. A very tired St Nicholas outfit were making last ditch tackles and one late effort saw a free kick awarded 10 yards outside the away team’s box. Up stepped Darragh Cronin on 84 minutes to level the game. It then became the Bradley McNabb show when somehow acrobatically saving from Price on 86 minutes and incredibly at point blank on 87 minutes to deny Cronin. One minute into stoppage time St Nicholas’ Cummins arrowed his shot that looked like it was going in only to shave the outside of the post. Suirside were to have one more chance in the final minute of injury time, neatly worked through by Paul Kennedy to Price who shot to the far post only for the man of the match McNabb somehow get a touch onto the inside of the post and Cronin following up flashed the rebound over the top. Both sides will feel they could have won this but over the 90 minutes a draw was probably about right.