Explosive end to tame tie sees Mellows snatch last-gasp win

Date Published: {J}

Liam Mellows 1-12

Carnmore 0-12

Dara Bradley

After an hour of mediocre and tame hurling, Carnmore’s and Liam Mellows’ first foray into the 2010 Galway senior hurling championship caught fire with an explosive few minutes that raised the excitement levels in the closing stages at Kenny Park on Saturday.

Mellows’ substitute Sean O’Brien had just levelled the scores 0-12 apiece after collecting a pass from John Lee with two minutes to go and the match had all the hallmarks of a draw approaching the full-time whistle with both sets of players playing with the gait of men who would settle for a share of the spoils.

But then an opportunistic goal for the city men turned the tie on its head.

With just seconds remaining, wing back John Hughes stepped-up to take a long range free, which fortunately for him was struck poorly, and the sliotar dropped invitingly into the danger area where fellow clubmates O’Brien, David Collins and Conor Hynes were waiting.

Despite the best efforts of Anthony Davoren, Ronnie Walsh and Joe Garrett in Carnmore’s defence, Collins somehow managed to get a clean strike to blast it past ‘keeper Damien Fahy.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.