St Gabriels 1 -12 Tooreen 1 – 22

AIB Club Intermediate  Hurling Championship semi-final

St Gabriels 1 -12 Tooreen 1 – 22

Congratulations to the lads on a fine effort in Dr Hyde Park on Saturday when they came off second best to a Tooreen side going for a 5th Connacht Championship in a row. The defending champions Tooreen got off to a dream start with 5  early points and could have been further ahead were it not for a fine save by Podge Collins to deny Fergal Boland from a tight angle. St Gabriels were finding the greasy conditions difficult before they got a foothold in the game. Rory Lodge stopped the rot with a fine point from play and this was followed by two points on the spin from the team captain Sean Glynn after 20 minutes. 0-5 to 0 -3 and the scoreboard had a better look about it as St Gabriels settled into the game.  Danny Coyne traded points with Eoin Delaney before a Ciaran Finn point kept the gap to three by the 24th minute. Sean Glynn responded with a free for St Gabriels to take it back to two. Fiachra Fitzpatrick pounced on a sloppy clearance by the Tooreen backline before laying it off to Danny Coyne who provided the finish. The goal put St Gabriels in front and it was game on. Tooreen responded to the setback with quickfire points from Fergal Boland and Sean Kenny but Conor O Carroll had his response with two quick-fire points of his own.  St Gabriels went in at the break 1-7 to 0-9.

Danny Coyne opened the 2nd half with a fine point from play to put St Gabriels 2 up. Tooreen had other ideas and 3 points in as many minutes from the Boland brothers and Eoin Delaney had cancelled out the lead and put Tooreen ahead.  Kenny Feeney delivered a long-range point to go 2 points up. The exchanges were entertaining and a couple of  St.Gabriels frees that drifted wide started to look costly as the game progressed. The decisive moment came on 45 minutes when Tooreen breached the St Gabriels defence as Eoin Delaney smashed the ball to the St Gabriels after some heroic St Gabriels defending. A long-range free from Sean Kenny and a Kenny Feeney point from play had finally appeared to put daylight between the sides. Sean Glynn stopped the rot with a pointed free. Three points from play followed by St Gabriels with Eoin Kelly, Andrew Curtin and Conor O Carroll making it a four-point game. It was still all to play for. A well-worked opportunity found Danny Coyne who was denied a second major by a fine save from the Tooreen Goalkeeper, Bobby Douglas. In the next attack, Eoin Kelly was harshly penalised by the referee who adjudged that he had picked the sliothar of the ground.  Tooreen rattled off the next 6 points to close out the game with a final score of 1-22 to 1-12.

We are proud of the lads and the performance. We were delighted to see such great support at Dr.Hyde Park with supporters travelling from all parts of the country to cheer the lads on. It was great to see so many join us back at the Abbey Hotel afterwards for the post-match meal.  Overall a great effort by the management team of Neil Rogers, Eoin Kelly, Frankie Tierney and Paddy Mullally. A couple of breaks on the day and it could have been a different story!

It’s been a great year for St Gabriels and the club finds itself back on top in London with a league and championship double. We will now enjoy the next few months before turning our focus to defending our crown next year and perhaps entertaining the Mayo champions at Emerald Park this time next year.