Date Published: 25-May-2011

TURLOUGHMORE 3-13

CLARINBRIDGE 1-11

FRANK FARRAGHER

IN ATHENRY

TURLOUGH’ have been through some tough times of late but there’s a lot of traditional pride in the North Galway hurling stronghold and it all came gushing forth at Kenny Park on Sunday when they pulled off a memorable coup against All-Ireland champions Clarinbridge in this Group C senior championship clash.

In theory, this should have been the last game in the world that Turloughmore needed after their collapse to St. Thomas’s last time out, but in practice it gave them the opportunity to throw caution to the wind and ‘have a go’ against the top team in the country.

This was gripping stuff. Turlough’ undoubtedly caught Clarinbridge on the hop in the opening minutes driving forward with the gale at their backs and hitting the net with regularity in the opening 18 minutes.

Clarinbridge probably just didn’t see this one coming and when any tinge of complacency creeps in, funny things can happen in sport. By the time the ‘Bridge had roused themselves from their early slumber late into the first half, the damage had been done.

With Turlough’ full forward Ronan Badge giving a lot of early bother to the Clarinbridge full backline, his attacking colleagues quickly picked up on the goal scent. With less than 20 minutes gone in this match, the All-Ireland champions trailed by 3-3 to 0-4.

Gary Burke, Matthew Keating and Ronan Badger delivered the killer goals – all well worked and neatly finished from close range – as a shellshocked Clarinbridge tried to establish a measure of composure.

Indeed, Turlough’s were a bit unlucky not to have hit the net on at least a couple of other occasions, with a Ronan Badger 26th minute flick just drifting wide of Liam O’Donoghue’s left hand post.

At the other end, Shane Burke had started very well for the county champions with a couple of scything runs yielding valuable points into the wind while Mark Kerins also delivered four very crisp strikes into the gale.

Turlough’ complemented their goal tally with a selection of fine points with Gary Burke, Darren O’Shaughnessy, Brian Murphy, Daithi Burke and Conor Feeney all finding the range. Daithi Burke’s 23rd mintue point from play was probably the pick of the bunch – an over the shoulder effort with his back towards goal.

Confidence is a fragile but amazingly energetic commodity and as the first half wore on Turlough’ sensed that they were onto something – their composure and resolve grew with each passing second.

When Daithi Burke delivered the last score of the first half from a free, his side had established a 3-8 to 0-6 lead and even allowing for the prospect of the howling tempest into their faces, this was an advantage not going to be easily surrendered.

For the second half, Turlough’ brought back an extra man into defence giving Fergal Moore a sweeping role and the inter-county defender fairly relished the challenge, effectively blocking up the centre channel towards goal.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.