Cappy back in the chase after crucial victory over Portumna

Portumna 0-11

FIVE years ago, Cappataggle would have needed planning permission to get on the same playing field as Portumna, but the local hurling landscape has altered significantly in the interim as the events at Duggan Park on Saturday evening underlined.

Portumna are only a pale imitation of the great team which collected six county and four All-Ireland titles over a decade of magnificent achievement, while Cappataggle – a club more associated with the intermediate ranks – have been heading in the opposite direction.

Still, it was a surprise when Cappataggle made last year’s senior semi-finals and having lost two of their opening three group games in the 2018 title race, they had no margin for error when heading to Ballinasloe for this critical collision.

Portumna were in the same boat and parading over a half-dozen players who had been there when the club made that historic breakthrough in 2003, their continued reliance on so many veterans was always going to leave them vulnerable.

Losing for a third time in the championship, Portumna’s race is now virtually run as even victory in their final group outing is unlikely to save them from making an unfamiliar premature exit, having now suffered defeat in their head-to-head meetings with the two teams currently on four points, Cappataggle and Loughrea.

The ravages of time had been evident in their opening round loss to Sarsfields, but Portumna’s decline was utterly stark on Saturday evening. Legendary warriors long past their prime and their legs no longer able to take them where their hearts and minds wanted.

It was sad to see their deterioration so brutally reinforced by a team Portumna hadn’t encountered in their hey-day. They rarely looked like winning this foul-ridden battle – never actually led it – and there was an air of inevitability about the result long before the finish.

Though claiming Portumna’s scalp does not carry the prestige of old, this was still a notable win for an eager and well-organised Cappataggle outfit which didn’t flinch from the physical exchanges with their greater mobility about the field a key component of this deserved triumph.

It was a perfect response to their recent loss to Mullagh and Cappataggle will have everything to play for when clashing with neighbours Sarsfields – a repeat of last year’s championship quarter-final – in their concluding group outing.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and  county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.