Sports
Gort come out on top in edgy south Galway derby
Gort 1-20
St Thomas’ 1-14
Eanna Burke’s shanked free in the fourth minute of injury time fairly well summed up what Sunday evening was like for St Thomas’ in Athenry. A fast start was soon forgotten as a Thomas’ team capable of much better put in a disjointed second half display against their South Galway rivals Gort.
St Thomas’ can still make the Senior Championship quarter-finals via the preliminary round if they beat Turloughmore in their final group fixture, but they have struggled in a highly competitive Group A, losing three of their four matches so far. The quarter-finals proper will be Gort’s prize if they can topple the high-flying Loughrea when the Senior Championship resumes later in the summer.
Take Conor Cooney out of this St Thomas’ side and they are obviously less potent in attack, and the same would be the case for any other club in Galway. Eanna Burke was one of the county’s best club performers in 2015, but he’s a marked man this year, and Jack Grealish shackled him well. St Thomas’ shot 13 wides in total, 10 of which came in the second period.
St Thomas’ will have to contend with the suspension of another important player also, after full-back Sean Skehill was given a straight red on Sunday. That dismissal came in the 36th minute, with Gort holding a 1-14 to 0-10 lead. Aidan Helebert popped over the resulting free, and the game pretty much trundled along to it’s inevitable conclusion thereafter.
Most observers in the county thought it would be these two contesting last year’s county final before the semi-final stage was played out. That taken into account, we were expecting a fine spectacle as the 2012 county champions (St Thomas’) faced the 2014 champions (Gort). We were treated to nothing of the sort, as referee Christy Browne did his best to control a game which had a niggling undercurrent to it.
As well as Skehill’s red, Browne issued five yellow cards. There were a couple of injury stoppages also, and there was a total of 13 minutes of added time played in each half, six in the first and seven in the second.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.