Sarsfields made to sweat as flying start proves flattering

Sarsfields 1-19

Kilnadeema Leitrim 3-13

SO much for any pre-conceived ideas about how this senior hurling A championship clash would turn out in Ballinasloe on Saturday evening. Instead of the anticipated routine Sarsfields victory, we got a cracking rollercoaster of a match which ended in deserved deadlock.

Initially, it had appeared there would be little drama at Duggan Park as Sarsfields stormed into 1-5 to 0-3 lead inside nine minutes with the returning Joseph Cooney making hay on the edge of the opposition square and the 2015 champions throwing positive shapes all over the field.

But those early exchanges led us seriously astray. Kilnadeema/Leitrim stormed back into the contest with arguably their best 20 minutes of hurling in years and had managed to turn a high-tempo contest completely on its head by half-time.

In that period, they outscored Sarsfields by a scarcely believable 3-5 to 0-2 – a staggering swing in fortunes – as the long serving Tom Tierney shored up their defence in an emergency sweeper role while, at the other end, the Kilnadeema/Leitrim forwards had the opposing rearguard at sixes and sevens.

For much of the second half, however, it was a case of whether Joe Kenny’s charges would manage to hold on as Sarsfields, given their tradition, unsurprisingly upped their work-rate and gradually reduced the deficit.

Twice in injury time which lasted close to nine minutes, Sarsfields edged in front but it would have been rough justice on Kilnadeema/Leitrim if they had come away with nothing from the game, with the effective Jack Kenny coming up with the ultimate equaliser in a hectic climax

With Cooney having returned from Australia earlier in the week, there was no shortage of pre-match speculation about whether his ‘paper work’ would be in order in time for him to line out, but the inter-county player – wearing the number 34 jersey – galloped to the full forward position for the throw-in.

And what a whirlwind return he made. In that early but flattering period of Sarsfields dominance, Cooney lofted over two classy points and also fired powerfully to the net in the second minute after latching onto Ian Fox’s half-blocked point-scoring attempt.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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