Ballyboden St Enda's bench depth was the difference as they pulled away late to beat Newtown Blues 1-11 0-5, says manager Anthony Rainbow.
1-4 from Colm Basquel led 14-man Boden to victory but Blues kept up with the Dublin champions as the game entered it's final quarter.
But the experience off the bench paid dividends for the visitors as Conal Keaney popped over two points, while Michael Darragh MacAuley was fouled for a penalty with Ryan Basquel, who hit 0-3 himself, hit over the bar.
"Mick has a lot of miles on the clock and we do have to look after him," Rainbow told the Irish Independent.
"The knock he got last week, he went through the protocols and was fine. But then he had the groin issue as well and we need to mind that and take the load off him as well.
"There was nothing in it at half-time. there really wasn't.
"I think if you look at our second half performance in terms of our bench - Mick coming on, Conal Keaney coming on, they made a huge difference to us.
"I think the subs that we made really drove it on."
