2021 SENIOR FINALISTS St. Thomas’ and Clarinbridge came through very different tests this afternoon in the Galway SHC quarter-finals, even though both sides eventually prevailed by the same winning margin.
St. Thomas’ battle with Cappataggle was the second game in this afternoon’s double header at Kenny Park in Athenry, and the East Galway underdogs never really raised a gallop, with 0-10 of their tally coming from placed balls in total.
St. Thomas’ ran out 1-19 to 0-16 winners, having done the bulk of the hard work in the first half when they accumulated an 0-13 to 0-5 lead while playing with the breeze.
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Conor Cooney led the scoring charge from frees in that period, but seven other St. Thomas’ players also got on the scoresheet, including centre back John Headd and wing back Cathal Burke, who chipped in with three excellent points between them.
Heavy rain descended on the venue at half-time and while the sides traded good points from Darragh Burke and Oisín Finn to get the action underway, a pedestrian contest developed where in the space of 18 minutes, every score bar one was from frees – the exception a powerful strike from Conor Cooney that was turned over the crossbar by a full-length James Skehill dive.
Scores from Darragh Dolan and Niall Collins briefly reduced the lead to four points, but St. Thomas’ quickly put any notion of a comeback to bed when Bernard Burke collected Darragh Burke’s excellent lateral pass when moving at pass, and after breaking another tackle, he placed a low shot inside the left-hand post of James Skehill’s goal to confirm their ongoing progress towards a fifth Galway title in succession.
The best of the action was in the opening contest between Clarinbridge and Tommy Larkins, when Larkins exploded out of the traps with a performance that was full of intensity, sharpness and vigour. Kevin McHugo and Cathal Tuohy were superb along the spine of the defence, Ronan Murphy and Cian Duggan picked off some sublime points, and they were full value for their 0-12 to 0-5 half-time lead, which owed very little to their use of the wind.
Clarinbridge were a changed team in the second half however, with far more bite in their play, and Niall Armstrong’s early points got them right back into contention. Gavin Lee squeezed a shot out of traffic underneath Éanna Murphy for a vital goal in the 40th minute, and when Mark Kennedy was pulled down inside the large square after 47 minutes, the corner forward brushed himself down and duly whipped the penalty to the bottom corner of the net for their first lead since the 12th minute.
Tommy Larkins continued to hurl with a world of fervour and energy, but they just couldn’t create chances and space up front, and were restricted to just three points in the second half.
They were still in contention right up until stoppage time however, when Clarinbridge captain TJ Brennan burst in from the left flank of the attack to fire the sliotar to the net for a third goal. It finished 3-12 to 0-15 in favour of Jarlath Niland’s side, with Evan Niland’s seventh free of the afternoon concluding their scoring.
The action continues tomorrow in Ballinasloe, where Sarsfields will play Portumna and Loughrea take on Turloughmore in the other two quarter-finals.
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St. Thomas' bid for Galway hurling five-in-a-row still alive
2021 SENIOR FINALISTS St. Thomas’ and Clarinbridge came through very different tests this afternoon in the Galway SHC quarter-finals, even though both sides eventually prevailed by the same winning margin.
St. Thomas’ battle with Cappataggle was the second game in this afternoon’s double header at Kenny Park in Athenry, and the East Galway underdogs never really raised a gallop, with 0-10 of their tally coming from placed balls in total.
St. Thomas’ ran out 1-19 to 0-16 winners, having done the bulk of the hard work in the first half when they accumulated an 0-13 to 0-5 lead while playing with the breeze.
Conor Cooney led the scoring charge from frees in that period, but seven other St. Thomas’ players also got on the scoresheet, including centre back John Headd and wing back Cathal Burke, who chipped in with three excellent points between them.
Heavy rain descended on the venue at half-time and while the sides traded good points from Darragh Burke and Oisín Finn to get the action underway, a pedestrian contest developed where in the space of 18 minutes, every score bar one was from frees – the exception a powerful strike from Conor Cooney that was turned over the crossbar by a full-length James Skehill dive.
Scores from Darragh Dolan and Niall Collins briefly reduced the lead to four points, but St. Thomas’ quickly put any notion of a comeback to bed when Bernard Burke collected Darragh Burke’s excellent lateral pass when moving at pass, and after breaking another tackle, he placed a low shot inside the left-hand post of James Skehill’s goal to confirm their ongoing progress towards a fifth Galway title in succession.
The best of the action was in the opening contest between Clarinbridge and Tommy Larkins, when Larkins exploded out of the traps with a performance that was full of intensity, sharpness and vigour. Kevin McHugo and Cathal Tuohy were superb along the spine of the defence, Ronan Murphy and Cian Duggan picked off some sublime points, and they were full value for their 0-12 to 0-5 half-time lead, which owed very little to their use of the wind.
Clarinbridge were a changed team in the second half however, with far more bite in their play, and Niall Armstrong’s early points got them right back into contention. Gavin Lee squeezed a shot out of traffic underneath Éanna Murphy for a vital goal in the 40th minute, and when Mark Kennedy was pulled down inside the large square after 47 minutes, the corner forward brushed himself down and duly whipped the penalty to the bottom corner of the net for their first lead since the 12th minute.
Tommy Larkins continued to hurl with a world of fervour and energy, but they just couldn’t create chances and space up front, and were restricted to just three points in the second half.
They were still in contention right up until stoppage time however, when Clarinbridge captain TJ Brennan burst in from the left flank of the attack to fire the sliotar to the net for a third goal. It finished 3-12 to 0-15 in favour of Jarlath Niland’s side, with Evan Niland’s seventh free of the afternoon concluding their scoring.
The action continues tomorrow in Ballinasloe, where Sarsfields will play Portumna and Loughrea take on Turloughmore in the other two quarter-finals.
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