A brace of first half goals put Dublin club St Vincent's on the way to winning their first Leinster Senior Club football title since 1984.
They ran out 2-8 to 0-07 winners over Westmeath champions Tyrrellspass at Cusack Park, Mullingar this afternoon.
It was poor defending by first-time finalists Tyrrellspass in the opening half that cost them badly.
Nothing separated the sides during the opening ten minutes, but then veteran Pat Gilroy edged St Vincent's in front by a point and they assumed control over the next 15 minutes.
Vincent's had no problems getting scores at this stage, while their opponents were clearly struggling.
The Dublin side lost Hugh Coghlan through concussion, but rather than hamper their cause, they continued to look the more inspired outfit and subsequently claimed some excellent scores.
Half-forward Kevin Golden paved the way to this historic Vincent's victory when he scored a goal after a cross-field pass from Tiernan Diamond.
The goal put the Dubliners into a lead that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the hour as Tyrrellspass played second fiddle.
Vincent's lorded possession and any ball that Tyrrellspass did manage to obtain was ill-used. They had a bad day in defence with some sloppy clearances and passing.
The eventual winners continued to up the pace with a point from Golden before the 36-year-old Gilroy planted the ball in the Tyrrellspass net to leave eight points between the sides with ten minutes remaining in the first half.
Tyrrellspass suddenly upped the tempo and their passes began to stick. A point from full-forward Martin Flanagan was the Westmeath side's first score in 15 minutes before Kevin Connell had the ball in the back of the Vincent's net.
However, the half-forward was deemed to have committed an infringement in the small square.
This was a major setback for Tyrrellspass as Vincent's came back strongly before the interval with some good points, and at half-time they held a 2-6 to 0-4 lead.
Points inside the opening ten minutes of the second half from David Glennon and Flanagan cut the deficit to two goals.
Although Vincent's could only manage two points in the entire second half including a 42nd-minute pointed free from team captain Tomás Quinn, their early groundwork in the opening half was enough to see them crowned Leinster champions for the fourth time.
Tyrrellspass woes were compounded late in the game with a second yellow card for centre-back TJ Gonoud in injury-time.
ST. VINCENT'S: Michael Savage; Paul Conlon, Eoin Brady, Hugh Gill; Timmy Doyle, Ger Brennan, Pat Kelly; Hugh Coghlan, Micheal O'Shea; Kevin Golden (1-3, 0-1f), Tiernan Diamond, Pat Gilroy (1-1); Brian Maloney (0-2), Dermot Connolly, Tomas Quinn (0-2, 0-2f).
Subs used: Conor Brady for Coghlan (14 mins), Ruairi Treanor for Brady (57).
TYRRELLSPASS: Darren Quinn; Tommy Newman, Barry Murphy, Terence O'Brien; Shane Arthur, TJ Gonoud, Philip Sheridan; Adrian Corcoran, David Murphy; Kevin Connell (0-1, 0-1f), Gavin Hoey, Keith Scally; David Glennon (0-2, 0-2f), Martin Flanagan (0-3, 0-1f), Denis Glennon (0-1).
Subs used: Cathal Daly for A Corcoran (48 mins), John Corcoran for Arthur (54), Ray Sheeran for Connell (57), Ronan Dunbar for Scally (59).
Referee: Cormac Reilly (Meath)
