An Spidéal hurlers celebrate historic triumph

Ardrahan 0-5

CHRISTMAS came early to An Spidéal this year after their Junior A hurlers were crowned county champions for the first time in last Sunday’s low scoring decider at Kenny Park.The Connemara men thoroughly deserved their five point victory avenging their defeat in last year’s final in the process.

Unsurprisingly for a game played five days before Christmas, conditions were hardly ideal for hurling with the heavy pitch slowing the pace of the game considerably. The eventual victors were by far the better team over the course of the hour and, though they laboured at stages, any result other than an An Spidéal victory would have been an injustice.

The major disappointment for Ardrahan will be that, after a positive start to the game, they never really got to the pitch of the contest. The South Galway side only managed one point from play in the whole game and that came in the second minute. Ardrahan’s forward line saw next to nothing of the sliotar in the following 60 minutes, a fact made worse by the number of frees that they wasted throughout the afternoon.

It was Ardrahan who got the game’s first score when a long delivery forward from Neil Gardiner was struck first-time by Liam Forde, blasting the sliotar over the bar. After Cillín Ó hEochaidh levelled the scores in the third minute, it took 13 minutes for the next score to come with both Ó hEochaidh and Brendan Forde failing to find their mark from frees on a couple of occasions.

Forde did manage to put things right, nailing a 50m free in the 17th minute but An Spidéal started to take control of proceedings at that stage, putting together a few incisive attacking moves. Shane Cosgrove was forced into making a superb last-ditch block to prevent An Spidéal’s Éamonn Ó Conláin from scoring the game’s opening goal.

Fintan Ó Cuanaigh raised the white flag soon after with Aodán Ó Curraoin also getting in on the act to put An Spidéal ahead, 0-3 to 0-2. Brendan Forde levelled the scores with another free in the 24th minute before An Spidéal went close again to grabbing what would have been a vital goal.

Pádraig Eoin Ó Curraoin made ground up the right-wing before playing a one-two with his brother, Micheál, only to hit his shot just over the bar. Having found their range by this point, both Brendan Forde and Cillín Ó hEochaidh traded frees to leave An Spidéal a point ahead at the break, 0-5 to 0-4.

Full match report in this week's Connacht Tribune.