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By Larry Cooney

St. Josephs and Heston Gaels will have to meet again in the Murphy Cup final after a late rally by St. Josephs deservedly earned the Greenford men a draw at soggy Ruislip on Saturday.

Despite the poor conditions this game certainly lived up to its pre-match billing and although it ended in stalemate it felt like a moral victory for St. Josephs after they overturned a six-point deficit midway through the half.

A goal and two points from Ollie Towey and a point from Mark McNulty rescued the Joes from what looked like an inevitable defeat after Heston looked the better side for much of the match.

Playing into the pavilion end in the opening half Heston made the better start with points from Sean Makin and Niall Gallagher but two points in three minutes from Ollie Towey and Paul Keenan tied the scores by the end of the first quarter.

However a goal and three points without reply in the following eight minutes put Heston firmly in control.

Beginning with a Michael Devanney point and followed by a Mackin free, a superb score from Padraig McManemon put Heston three points clear before Thomas Hickey latched on to a through ball from Devanney to score a spectacular goal six minutes before half-time.

Now firmly on the backfoot St. Josephs battled their way back into contention with a brace of points from Mark McNulty just before the interval to leave the score Heston Gaels 1-5 to 0-4.

A Kevin Keenan point two minutes after the resumption should have given St. Josephs the impetus to get back into contention in the third quarter but it was Heston who consolidated their position with three points from Billy Blackford, Conan O’Brien and a superb score from Sean Keane after 38 minutes to open up what looked like a decisive six-point lead.

Amazingly Heston somehow failed to score again until Michael Devanney’s point six minutes from time.

Meanwhile St. Josephs who introduced Kiernan Keenan for the combative Paul Gavigan dug deep and inspired by Ollie Towey and Mark McNulty de-servedly lived to fight another day when Towey’s point on the stroke of normal time set-up an eagerly-anticipated replay between the local West London rivals.