Champs do the damage early to see off Turlough

Turloughmore 1-15

HOW does a game that was so one-sided for so long see the losers come away with regrets knowing victory was within their grasp?

That’s the question which arose at full-time in Sunday’s senior hurling championship semi-final at Kenny Park, where Turloughmore were left to rue 11 wides and a late missed penalty in their five-point defeat to defending county champions St Thomas’.

After 39 minutes of this contest, St Thomas’ led Joe Hession’s side 3-11 to 0-9. The game was as good as sewn up. St Thomas’ had been a joy to watch up to that point, while Turloughmore, appearing in their first county semi-final since 2012, hadn’t shown up.

The only way they were keeping themselves any way close to the Kilchreest/Peterswell men was down to St Thomas’ indiscipline.  Turloughmore only scored three points from play in the whole game and yet, when they outscored St Thomas’ 0-5 to 0-2 between the 42nd and 53rd minutes, the gap was back to eight-points, though fans still headed for the exit gates assuming the game was done.

That was until Jamie Holland found Daithi Burke with a pin-point pass over the head of Galway captain David Burke. Burke in turn found substitute Ronan Badger inside with a looping handpass and Badger did the rest, burying the sliotar past James Barrett to make it 3-13 to 1-14.

Barrett had been called upon in the 45th minute to deny Walsh with a brilliant stop down to his left which would have seen Turlough even closer again.

After Badger’s goal, many had exited too far to come back but a steady stream of fans did hastily return to Kenny Park and what they witnessed moments later made it well worth their while  . . . Badger being fouled inside the square and awarded a penalty.

Badger stood up to take the penalty himself but, with Barrett rooted to the spot, Badger watched his low shot flash to the right and wide as St Thomas’ breathed a huge sigh of relief.

With that miss, Turlough’s revival was done and St Thomas’ negotiated the final five minutes of normal time, plus additional time safely, with Darragh Burke and Conor Walsh trading frees.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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