Tommie Larkins power into quarter-finals

Date Published: 13-Jul-2010

Tommie Larkins 3-20 Turloughmore 2-14

Noel Carney

in Loughrea

TOMMIE Larkins’ experienced little difficulty in making sure of the two points on offer and this convincing win in the opening leg of Saturday evening’s double bill at Loughrea enables them to top Group B and, in the process, a deserved place in the quarter-finals of the Cooper championship.

For Turloughmore though, the agony of a very disappointing season goes on. Even though they battled away gamely to the end in this match, the handicap of having several key members of their panel missing through injury or other reasons proved to be too much and, as expected, they found the going tough against a high-flying Woodford-Ballinakill outfit.

Noel Murphy’s men wrested control in the early stages and made good use of the stiff breeze as they stormed into a 2-7 to 0-4 lead after only a quarter of an hour with Colm Flynn and Gerard Kelly netting the goals.

A defeat of humiliating proportions looked on the cards for the Hoops at that point but although Larkin’s stayed firmly in charge and led 3-11 to 0-8 at the break, they didn’t pull away. Complementing those early goals, Kevin Hooban shot four excellent points from distance in the opening 20 minutes of the first half for the winners while the energetic Paddy Moroney got their third goal shortly afterwards.

Moroney, who covered acres of ground, had earlier pointed at the end of a flowing move.Niall Kelly chipped in with two from play in the first half, midfielder Alan Garvey also scored twice and the ever reliable Eamon Hayes converted a brace of frees as they surged well clear by the break,while their opponents in contrast struggled to score despite plenty of wholehearted endeavour.

Spirited wing-forward Brian Murphy led the resistance with three points from frees and one from play and further white flags were raised by Gary Burke (2), Joe Hession and midfielder Paul Cullinane. They were denied a goal when custodian Darragh Starr made a splendid reflex save from Gary Hurney but the result was sewn up at the halfway mark.

An early Francis Forde point and a goal by the same player after good work by Gary Hurney hinted at a comeback of sorts, but Turlough’ hopes were short-lived as Tommie Larkin’s quickly went to town again with a flurry of points from Eamon Hayes, Alan Garvey, Gerard Kelly and David Hickey to make it 3-17 to 1-9 with over ten minutes left.