Seasoned Gort squeeze past Cappy in tight affair

Cappataggle 0-18

Pádraic Ó Ciardha  at Pearse Stadium

GORT caused the upset of the quarter-final round of this year’s senior hurling championship as they ground out a one point victory over Cappataggle last Saturday.

It probably shouldn’t be much of a shock that a team that has contested four county finals in the last ten years could reach the final four of this year’s competition, but the jubilant celebrations from the Gort players at the final whistle gave a clear indication of what this result meant to them.

It was certainly a win Gort worked hard for. Mattie Murphy’s side were second best in the opening quarter and found themselves four points behind late in the first half. A strong finish to the half had them ahead by the break, however, and while Cappataggle reduced a three point deficit to the minimum in added-time in the second half, Gort were able to do just enough to see the game out. An excellent score from play from Aiden Helebert in the 61st minute proved to be the winner for Gort as their experienced men stood up to the plate.

The game began at a frenetic pace with seven scores in the first six minutes. It was Cappataggle who took the lead after just 12 seconds, Niall Collins striking over, but Gort were soon ahead thanks to an Aiden Helebert free and a good score from Darren O’Donoghue. Ja Mannion and James Egan put Cappataggle back ahead momentarily before Paddy Commins equalised, but Cappataggle were back ahead when Liam Collins put one over from the left wing.

Three wides in a row prevented Cappataggle from taking a strong grip on proceedings as the game settled down, but they still managed to push it out to double scores midway through the half as James Egan and Liam Collins found the target to make it 0-6 to 0-3.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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