St. Thomas' book first appearance in county decider

St Thomas’ 1-16Gort 1-15

STEPHEN GLENNON AT KENNY PARK

A whirlwind 20-minute spell in which St Thomas’ outscored county champions Gort by 1-7 to 0-2 was pivotal in securing the Kilchreest/Peterswell outfit a place in their first ever county senior hurling final at Kenny Park, Athenry on Sunday. 

It was always going to take something special to divide these two sides in this semi-final replay, and substitute Shane Cooney’s goal on 54 minutes was certainly that. Great work by another sub Eanna Burke created the opportunity for Cooney, who finished his lung-bursting run through the cover with a sensational effort off the hurl to beat Gort ‘keeper Peter Cummins. Top right hand corner. No chance. 

In many respects, Cooney and Burke were the unlikeliest of heroes, given both did not start the contest and both are just teenagers learning their trade. Still, they showed great maturity in finally picking the lock of a resolute Gort defence and, ultimately, this was the defining moment in what has been an epic year of struggle between the two neighbours in the senior ranks.

Finally, at the fourth attempt in 12 months, St Thomas’ have broken the Gort shackles and it will be interesting to see if they can build on this and produce a county final winning performance against Loughrea on Sunday week, November 18.

In that productive 20-minute spell last Sunday, John Burke’s charges showed they are as good as any side in the county. Trailing 0-12 to 0-9, St. Thomas’ suddenly sprung to life with the lively Kenneth Burke (2) and Conor Cooney (free) hitting a plethora of quick points to level matters for the third time in the contest by the three-quarter mark.

Eanna Burke subsequently traded a point with Gerry Quinn (free) but the momentum was now with St Thomas and in the ensuing minutes they opened up the proverbial can of ‘whoop-ass’, pardon the expression. James Regan and Richard Murray shot two great points, with Shane Cooney’s classy 54th minute strike sandwiched in between. Almost in the blink of an eye, the victors were 1-15 to 0-13 in front.

That should have been it really but it wasn’t. Backed into a corner, Gort fought tooth-and-nail to save their championship aspirations with Quinn (free) exchanging a score with Murray before Quinn blazed home a close range free two minutes into injury-time to reduce the arrears to two.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.