St Thomas’ leave it late to see off dogged Castlegar side

St Thomas’ 2-19   Castlegar  0-21

The margin of victory might slightly flatter St Thomas’, but the All-Ireland club champions deservedly advanced to the Galway senior hurling semi-final after accounting for a dogged Castlegar team that battled to the death at Kenny Park on Sunday.

In truth, just the width of a cigarette paper separated the two sides but a late Shane Cooney goal – the last puck of an absorbing finale – put a bit of gloss on the scoreboard.

It’s a pity that goal was the final act; for seconds earlier St Thomas’ Eanna Burke’s decisive point, from out along the terrace side-line, under-pressure and off-balance, was worthy of being labelled the Roy of the Rovers style match-winner to put his side one-point up deep in injury time. It was a thing of beauty.

It was Eanna Burke’s fourth point from play on the day and capped off a man-of-the-match performance for the wing-forward, who is still only minor.

St Thomas’ could have been forgiven for thinking that they’d shaken off the Castlegar challenge sooner than the last puck of the game. When Conor Cooney buried a penalty 25 minutes into the second half, to give St Thomas’ a 1-18 to 0-17 advantage, it appeared to extinguish Castlegar’s hopes of an upset. Not so fast.

The resolute city men proved in this campaign – against Craughwell and Loughrea in the groups stages – that they don’t throw in the towel without a battle. And boy did they battle here again.

Enda Concannon started the fight-back with a classy point and then Ger Farragher – impeccable from placed balls all day – reeled off three frees.

Bang, bang, bang, and all of sudden it’s stalemate in injury time; the sides are level for the eighth occasion over the hour; and a draw appears the most likely outcome.

That equalising point was Farragher’s 13th pointed free from 13 attempts, an incredible haul for the former county player that perhaps deserved more in terms of the result.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.