Brian Dillon's made no mistake in yesterday's Silversprings Moran Hotel Junior A Hurling Championship semi-final replay at Ballinlough.

The Saints arrived at city division headquarters having blown a golden chance of defeating their opponents in the first game but in truth they can have few excuses for this defeat, as they never came out of the blocks. When the Saints did threaten a mini revival they were denied a blatant second half penalty that infuriated both players and mentors. Many heroes for Dillon's but one player deserves special attention and that is centre forward Darragh Rodgers. Rodgers who was sidelined for almost two seasons with consecutive cruciate injuries was only playing his second game of the season but he simply oozes in class. Despite scoring two points his distribution to his fellow forwards and his ability to win ball in the air has made a huge difference to this Dillon's outfit.

Playing against the wind, the Tank Field outfit surprisingly dominated the first half, as Vincent's looked shell-shocked such was the intensity of Dillon's movement and striking. John Horgan after a slow start struck over three consecutive points that gave his side a 0-6 to 0-1 lead in the 16th minute. Two minutes later Saints were further punished as John Noonan drilled an unstoppable shot past the bewildered Vincent's keeper. The Saints could only muster up three points for the half all from the stick of Cian Barry but they looked in trouble at the break when trailing 1-9 to 0-3.

Despite a much-improved second half performance, the Saints never looked likely to peg back the deficit although they will feel aggrieved that the referee chose to ignore a legitimate penalty when John Paul Murphy was hauled down in the 43rd minute. Dillon's, without ever breaking sweat remained in control, as they can now look forward to a place in this championship final.

Scorers for Dillon's: J Horgan 0-8(0-5f), J Noonan 1-1, C McCarthy 1-0, D Rodgers 0-2, C Brosnan, T Lawrence 0-1 each

Team: 1.T Triggs 2.M Carey 3.D Brosnan 4.N Fahy 5.D Murphy 6.M White 7.D McCormick 8.C McCarthy 9.C Brosnan 10.J Horgan 11.D Rodgers 12.T Lawrence 13.J Noonan 14.T Boland 15.P O'Brien.

Subs: D O'Donoghue for M White(inj 56), M Buckley for T Boland(58)