Portumna produce a big display on day it counts

Inside Track with John McIntyre

Portumna may be gone past their prime, but it still didn’t stop them from regaining the high ground in Galway club hurling at Pearse Stadium on Monday after an unexpected three seasons on the title sidelines. And once more old foes Loughrea were their final victims in a showdown which had its quality impaired by a sticky surface.

Have two clubs ever experienced such contrasting fortunes in just over a decade? While Portumna were storming to a sixth county championship, Loughrea were left trying to grapple with the despair of a sixth final defeat over the same era. This defeat will probably hurt them the most as they appeared ready to deliver a really big display in Salthill but, perhaps, the scars of previous big day losses are cutting too deep now.

Typically, Loughrea battled honourably to the end but, in reality, they were unable to muster enough moments of class which might have carried them over the line. They were under pressure at half-time when retiring only on level terms having being backed by the wind, while their persistent route one approach to a largely ineffective Johnny Maher on the resumption yielded little dividend. A meagre return of three points in that second-half summed up how badly their attack ran out of ideas.

In a final in which Loughrea never led, they will also look back on the opening-half with regret despite the notable fact that all six of their forwards managed to score from play. They had sufficient territory and possession to have thrown down the gauntlet to Portumna, but were always chasing the game after Joe Canning (free) and Man of the Match Andy Smith breeched their lines for green flags in front of a healthy crowd of over 9,000.

Loughrea did manage some rousing points from the lively Johnny O’Loughlin, Jamie Ryan, Neil Keary, Johnny Coen, who was possibly shunted around too much, and Paul Hoban but those scores were only keeping them in Portumna’s slipstream rather than putting daylight between the teams. They needed to be ahead at the interval; they weren’t; and that scenario possibly unnerved them, especially as the former All-Ireland champions had rediscovered their penchant for goals.

Canning, lining out at midfield, bravely went for the net from a 20m free to the right of the Loughrea posts in the sixth minute. It summed up Portumna’s attitude and was a clear statement of intent. Those attempts for goals are generally odds against, but Canning found the target and, in one swoop, Portumna concerns that they were losing their trademark ability to get goals – they had gone three matches without one – had disappeared.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.