Maher’s late point gets Loughrea over the line

Loughrea 0-16

Mullagh 0-15

CLOSE neighbours who know so much about one another, it was no surprise that drama aplenty defined the final moments of this senior hurling championship quarter-final at Dugghan Park on Saturday evening.

Loughrea and Mullagh had both missed opportunities to pull ahead and secure a semi-final berth, Loughrea being particularly errant when the red zone came into view. Neil Keary is only recently recovered from the broken wrist he suffered during the summer, and the Loughrea captain was introduced with a couple of minutes to play.

Just as he was feeling his way to the high-octane pace, Keary dragged down Mullagh wing-back Padraig Kennedy on the run, and afforded his opposing captain Cathal Dervan the chance to level the sides and bring his tally for the evening to 11 frees. Loughrea drew with St. Thomas’ in last year’s quarter-final stage, and Dervan’s point meant that a replay was surely on the cards here again. Johnny Maher had other ideas though.

Mullagh full-back Johnny Rafferty didn’t give Maher an inch all game, equal to him physically, but from the resulting puck-out following Dervan’s free, Gearoid Loughnane noticed Maher pulling away into a little bit of space and flicked a ball his way. The Loughrea number 14 did the necessary, and although there was almost another three minutes of injury time to develop under Leonard Fay’s watch, Mullagh couldn’t pull another point out of the bag.

Mullagh struggled to offer a consistent threat in attack, which would be illustrated by the fact that 11 of 15 points were from placed balls, Davy Glennon and Donal Reilly being their only forwards to hit the target from play. Injuries to Finian Coone and Sean Hardiman denied them of two probable starters, but they were never out of the game though. The teams were level nine times, but had Loughrea been forced to tog out another day for a quarter-final replay, it is they who would have been leaving Ballinasloe with more to regret.

Loughrea scored 16 points and had another 16 wides, to Mullagh’s seven. Loughnane was excellent, but was wayward with early frees, and the malaise affected different players at certain stages. They got over the line, which is of course the most important thing for a young side, and their half-backs Paul Hoban and Brian Mahony were both prominent in the final quarter. Johnny Coen too turned over a number of Mullagh defenders when the game was in the melting pot.

Mullagh’s own half-back line did their bit to keep the sliotar travelling away from their own goal too. Padraig Kennedy had a fine match from start to finish, as did his colleague across the line Conor Dervan at centre-half back. Glennon was hardly on the ball in the first period, but came up with two points after the resumption, the second a sumptuous bit of stick work that helped him evade a few Loughrea opponents and split the posts.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune