Champions St. Thomas’ prove different class

St. Thomas’ 2-16 Clarinbridge  0-10

Alan Dooley at Kenny Park

AN explosive scoring burst midway through the first half, combined with a fortuitous Darragh Burke goal before the break, ensured St. Thomas’ made light work of Sunday’s decisive Group A clash with Clarinbridge at a sun-drenched Kenny Park, Athenry.

Six points in as many minutes put the title holders firmly in the driving seat with a 0-9 to 0-2 lead, leaving the large crowd who had hoped for a riveting encounter to end this year’s group stage largely muted. While there was much to admire in St. Thomas’ ability to pick off scores from a variety of sources, Clarinbridge’s limitations were cruelly exposed by their highly motivated opponents.

The absence through injury of key forwards Paul Coen and Billy Lane fatally damaged the ‘Bridge’s chances of repeating their shock defeat of Portumna, as it was clear from early on that they would be unable to shackle the All Ireland champions forwards. To their credit, though, they managed a revival in fortunes in the third quarter that saw them fire over five points in a row, but it never looked sufficient to cause St. Thomas’ undue worry.

The champion’s cause was aided by a stroke of luck on 28 minutes when centre half back Darragh Burke drove a free from inside his own ’65 towards the Clarinbridge goal, only for the dropping ball to deceive ‘keeper Shane Mannion and land in the back of the net. A nine point advantage was the result, and from thereon in Clarinbridge were never a realistic threat to progress.

Despite only leading by 0-3 to 0-2 after 11 minutes, it was evident from early on that St. Thomas’ were in no mood to surrender their crown at this point in the competition. Quick, accurate striking was accompanied by a fiery work ethic that ensured Clarinbridge had to work their socks off to get a sighting of the posts.  

Two Eoin Forde frees were all they had to show for the opening 20 minutes action, while St. Thomas’ had displayed an abundance of class in racking up their nine scores. A Conor Cooney free opened their account, before full forward Richie Murray and the livewire Bernard Burke added well taken points from play as Cooney also went for goal from a close-in free but was denied.

The same player then converted a 13th minute free after Burke was fouled, before the Kilchreest/Peterswell men embarked on a scoring run that left Clarinbridge trailing in their wake. David Burke set up Galway colleague James Regan for a sharp score, before Regan became the provider for Bernard Burke’s second. Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.