Old reliables Loughrea make short work of Beagh

NO team in Galway sport seems to bounce back quite as emphatically as Loughrea, who cruised through to their seventh county final in 11 years with a minimum of fuss thanks to an emphatic victory over a disappointing Beagh side in the first part of the senior hurling semi-final double bill at Kenny Park on Sunday.

While an element of stage-fright must have got to Beagh, who failed to come anywhere near their heroics in seeing off Turloughmore in the quarter-final, there was a conviction about this Loughrea performance which indicated that they might just be strong enough to win the title for only the third time in the club’s history this year.

They have a superb young free-taker in Neil Keary, and could afford to see Johnny Coen have a quiet match and still end up with 1-2, while the likes of Johnny Maher and Johnny O’Loughlin showed a capacity to get the kind of scores they will need in abundance if they are to overcome champions St Thomas’ or old foes Portumna in the decider.

It rankles, of course, that the Town have won only one of the six finals they have contested since 2003, but they seem to have the right mix of youth and experience to make amends for last year’s defeat on the basis of this emphatic display.

For Beagh, on the other hand, this was a day to forget. They struggled to cope with the magnitude of the first semi-final appearance in the club’s history and looked to be in dire trouble as early as the tenth minute when the excellent Keary opened up a three point lead for the victors.

An early Kieran Diviney chance might have settled their nerves in front of a crowd of almost 10,000, but the full-forward missed his opportunity and Keary whisked the ball upfield for lively wing back Sean Sweeney to open the scoring for Loughrea.

Young Keary added a free and a score from play, with O’Loughlin chipping in with a point from the left wing before Kevin Keehan opened Beagh’s account from a 55 metre free. Full match report in this week's Connacht Tribune.