St Vincent's 2-09 Crossmaglen 0-11

Early goals from Brian Maloney and Tomas Quinn helped fire St. Vincent's into their first All-Ireland club final since 1985.

Reigning All-Ireland champions Crossmaglen left themselves with too much to do as they trailed by 2-08 to 0-04 at half-time, with both Maloney (4 minutes) and Quinn (14) bulging their net.

Diarmuid Connolly contributed three points from play, and he also notched Vincent's only point after the break as despite the best efforts of Oisin McConville and the Kernan brothers, the Armagh men bowed out of the competition.

The win, Vincent's fourth semi-final success since 1973, sets up an intriguing All-Ireland decider against Nemo Rangers of Cork on March 17.

It will be a repeat of the 1976 final which the Marino-based club won for their only All-Ireland title to date.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the opening 30 minutes, Vincent's made a stellar start with a second-minute free from Quinn being quickly followed by Maloney's goal.

The Cross defence was caught napping when Tiernan Diamond threaded through a brilliant ball and Maloney took it on the turn before blasting past a stranded Paul Hearty.

McConville replied with the champions' opening point and Johnny Murtagh also weighed in with an over but the Dubliners notched four scores without reply up to the 17th-minute, including a goal from captain Quinn.

Kevin Golden's high ball in was perfectly placed for Pat Gilroy to collect and the experienced full-forward dished it off to his right for the onrushing Quinn to rasp a low shot past Hearty and into the bottom left corner of the net.

Cross were struggling to cope with Vincent's high-tempo game - full of fast, direct football - and both Aaron Kernan and John Donaldson had their hands full as they tried to keep the pacy Connolly in check.

Predictably, the Ulster kingpins came out strongly for the second half and Hugh Gill needed to be on his toes to prevent Murtagh from getting a sight of goal in the 33rd-minute.

With old hand Francie Bellew brought on as a substitute to tie things up at the back, Cross were able to eat into Vincent's lead with points from Tony and Stephen Kernan and McConville.

Stephen Kernan's second point of the afternoon was just one of five Cross scores on the bounce during a 20-minute period as the John McEntee-captained champions kept fighting right to the finish.

But for McConville hitting the post and Aaron Kernan pushing a late free wide of the posts, they might have got closer and goalkeeper Hearty even ventured forward to try his luck at nabbing an injury-time goal.

However, it was Vincent's day and deservedly so with Hugh Coughlan and Michael O'Shea both starring in midfield.

Centre-back Ger Brennan was also a stand-out player for Mickey Whelan's side as they moved a step closer to lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup.

ST VINCENT'S: M Savage; P Conlon, E Brady, H Gill; T Doyle, G Brennan, P Kelly; H Coughlan, M O'Shea (0-01); K Golden, T Diamond (0-01), D Connolly (0-04); B Maloney (1-01), P Gilroy, T Quinn (1-02, 0-02f).

Subs used: R Trainor for Golden (55 mins), W Lowry for Gilroy (60).

CROSSMAGLEN: P Hearty; S Finnegan, T McEntee (0-01), P Kernan; A Kernan (0-01), J Donaldson, B McKeown; D McKenna, S Clarke; M Aherne, J McEntee (0-01), S Kernan (0-02); T Kernan (0-01), J Murtagh (0-01), O McConville (0-04, 0-04f).

Subs used: M McNamee for Aherne (36 mins), F Bellew for Clarke (39), P McKeown for Finnegan (43), J Hanratty for P Kernan (46), K Carragher for Murtagh (52).

Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo)