Gort’s fire-power too much for brave Mellows

Date Published: 29-Sep-2009

THE hurlers of Gort are sailing steadily through the choppy seas of the 2009 senior championship and, even if they did take in some water towards the end of this quarter- final tie in Athenry on Sunday evening, they rarely looked like sinking. Liam Mellows again showed remarkable resilience and spirit when lesser mortals might have given up the cause, but in the end they just couldn’t match Gort’s greater firepower up front.

Overall it was reasonably entertaining fare on a gloomy evening at Kenny Park whose greyness seemed to be nudging us into winter, but Gort’s lively young team will be hoping for a couple of brighter days to come in October.

Referee David Dillon also played his part in contributing to the entertainment value of the match, by letting the game flow without any frivolous stoppages.

Gort started with a sprint and then lost their way for a time in the first half but they always appeared to have the forwards capable of delivering scores when the pressure came on.

Their inside attacking line of Richie Cummins, Ollie Fahy and Martin Nestor did most of the damage, accumulating 4-5 between them, even if the first of those goals arrived with some gift wrapping attached.

That came in the 20th minute after Mellows had fought back to lead at 1-3 to 0-5. Richie Cummins’ strike at goal was half blocked and looked to be trickling harmlessly into the path of Kenneth Murphy but the ‘keeper, in opting to pull first rather than stop, missed the sliotar completely and it rolled agonisingly into the back of the net.

Gort had started very…