Craughwell boys stun holders

Date Published: 12-Dec-2012

Craughwell 2-14

St. Thomas’ 2-11

Alan Dooley in Athenry

A devastating late scoring burst at the end of a titanic battle saw Craughwell deservedly claim their fourth U-21 A hurling crown at the expense of title holders St. Thomas’ at Kenny Park, Athenry on Sunday. A quickfire brace of goals from Michael Farrell gave Craughwell a decisive lead that not even Conor Cooney’s injury time salvo could overturn.

Cooney blasted two frees to the net to leave just a score between the sides, but the damage had been done to St. Thomas’ chances ten minutes earlier. A contest that was remarkable for the intensity and application of both sides was turning into a duel of the free-takers as Craughwell’s Keelan Cullinane and St. Thomas’ Cooney were the only scorers for 20 minutes of the second half.

A 48th minute effort from Cooney left just the minimum between the sides, and with darkness descending, a replay looked to be the most obvious outcome. But Craughwell had other notions, and when they won a throw in 35 metres from the Thomas’ goal, Cullinane fed corner forward Farrell who had ghosted beyond the cover. The net billowed, the Craughwell fans were in full voice, and the game began to slip away from the reigning champions.

Within three minutes Farrell had repeated the trick, profiting from excellent work by full forward Jamie Ryan to once more fire passed goalkeeper Patrick Skehill, who would have done well to pick out the rocket in the gloom. Craughwell sensed victory was close at hand and added three further points in quick succession to leave a shell-shocked St. Thomas’ side, now nine points adrift, with a mountain to climb.

As Craughwell dropped bodies back, in the hope of protecting Colin Rooney’s goal, they allowed St. Thomas’ pick up enough possession to pepper their forwards with searching deliveries. Twice a raiding forward was dragged to the ground in what must have felt like a never-ending period of injury time for the Craughwell faithful, and twice Conor Cooney rifled through a phalanx of bodies from the 20 metre line, but time caught up with the Thomas’ challenge and the glory was all Craughwell’s.

It was a stunning victory for the underdogs, whose last competitive outing was 34 weeks previously, and is a testament to manager Fergal Healy’s ability to have them raring to go after such a long wait for action. This win was built on a doggedness and determination from front to back to close down the space that St. Thomas’ love to operate in, epitomised by their captain Cathal Greaney and the livewire midfielder Shane Dolan.

Dolan’s energy and workrate were infectious and he got Craughwell off the mark with a peach of a point in the sixth minute. By that stage St. Thomas’ had already engineered two scores of their own through Michael Gleese and Conor Cooney, all of the scores coming from play on an as ideal a day as you can get for hurling in the second weekend of December.

Unfortunately, there were amazingly only four further scores from open play in the game, but this did not detract from the spectacle that kept the large crowd enthralled throughout. A long range Darragh Burke free edged Thomas’ back two in front, but Keelan Cullinane’s first placed ball was on target shortly after for Craughwell.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.