Na Fianna booked a Dublin Senior Football Championship quarter-final at home to Thomas Davis as their hopes of winning a third title in eight years remain alive.
The Drumcondra side topped qualifying Group C on points difference from Ballyboden St Enda’s to take a crucial advantage into the knockout stages this weekend.
The three-team conference was the tightest of all the groups in this year’s competition with only seven points separating Na Fianna from bottom-placed Fingallians.
The Drumcondra side finished the round robin series with one win and one defeat, identical to the other two sides in the group.
And it was Na Fianna’s eight-point win over Fingallians on the final day that ensured they topped the group and knocked their opponents out of the competition.
With Fingallians on +4 points difference and Na Fianna on -5, the saffron and blues needed to win by at least five points to be sure of their place in the latter stages.
As it happened, their eight-point win was enough to take them above Boden and make sure of home advantage at Mobhi Road in the last eight.
They’ll be heavy favourites against a Thomas Davis side who scraped through as the third best team in Group B with one win to their name.
There’ll be no place for Parnell’s in the knockout stages, however, as they lost all three of their Group B games to ensure they finished bottom.
They shipped seven goals in each of their defeats to St Brigid’s and Thomas Davis is the opening two rounds and faced champions of the last years, Foxrock Cabinteely, in the last game.
Against the odds, the Coolock club restored some respectability with a 3-21 to 2-4 defeat in their final game in Chanel College.
