Shaughnessy saves the day for Turlough with a late equaliser

Turloughmore 0-17Tommy Larkins 2-11

CIARAN TIERNEY AT LOUGHREA

It may have taken a dramatic late point from wing forward Conor Shaughnessy to salvage a draw for Turloughmore from this exciting County Minor ‘A’ Hurling final, but a narrow defeat would have been extremely harsh on the better balanced side who did most of the hurling at Loughrea on Saturday.

No less than eight of the Turloughmore side are still eligible for the U-18 grade for the next two years and yet they really should have put the favourites away after dominating so much of this enjoyable tussle in front of a 2,000 strong crowd.

For their part, a bit like Kilkenny in last month’s drawn All-Ireland final, Larkins relied far too much on the heroics of one individual forward. 2011 All-Ireland minor winner Jason Flynn hit 1-10 of the Woodford side’s 2-11 and kept the men in red in the game when they were clearly struggling all over the field.

It is a measure of Flynn’s reputation in Galway underage hurling that Turlough’ regularly put two men on the Larkins’ player whenever he went in to full-forward and that policy was relatively successful as all ten of his points came from placed balls.

Just like Kilkenny, Larkins will probably feel they have more improving to do for the replay, although their preparations will be hampered by the horrific leg injury suffered by full-back Christopher Moloney late in the first half.

The Larkins’ defender’s broken leg resulted in a lengthy delay at the end of the first half and his agony as he waited 90 minutes for an ambulance to arrive cast a shadow over what was a decent sporting contest, if not quite as riveting as the ‘B’ final replay which preceded it.

Larkins started the game as favourites on the basis of their U-16 title success two years ago, but it was the extremely youthful Turlough’ side who took charge from the throw-in as they built up an 0-5 to 0-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Shaughnessy and Flynn exchanged scores from placed ball before industrious centre forward Sean Linnane hit the first point from play for Turloughmore.

Three in a row from Michael Morris, wing forward Damien Holland, and a short range Shaughnessy free, following a foul on Man of the Match Linnane, opened up a four point lead – but Turlough’ felt they needed it, given the strength of the breeze at their backs in the opening period.

Morris had come agonisingly close to a goal in the opening minutes, but his side enjoyed a period of dominance thanks to good work by Linnane, midfielder Richard Doyle, Holland, and Shaughnessy.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.