Tourlestrane meet Mary’s in Cup

IN a replay of last year’s championship final, Tourlestrane hosted St Mary’s in the Kiernan Cup semi final on Saturday last in Tourlestrane. With both teams missing numerous county players, it was a chance for others to prove their place and step up to the mark. St Mary’s started the game very strongly, with a goal and a point in quick succession. Nathan Rooney got the first of his five points, quickly added to by a goal from corner forward Adam Lynch. With the pressure on, Tourlestrane began to shorten the Mary’s lead. Pat Harte broke down a high ball, which spilled to Gary Gaughan. Gaughan instantly shot at goal, which resulted in a point after an acrobatic save from Fintan Ruddy. Conan Marren struck a left footed point four minutes later, reducing Mary’s lead to three points. Ruddy scored a long range free kick four minutes later. Half way through the first half, and Tourlestrane were trailing 1-2 to 0-2. Tourlestrane scored two points in quick succession, both badly needed. Pat Harte pointed a near free before Oisín Kennedy made his usual surging run from wing back to finish in a well taken score. Referee Marty Duffy was adamant upon the use of gumshields in this game, and as a result both teams broke any rhythm in their play that was being built up. As some players dashed to the dressing rooms and dugouts searching for their gumshields, neither could produce a score for this seven minutes of play. Nathan Rooney pointed twice for Mary’s, and Pat Harte added one to his tally, bringing the scoring to 1-5 to 0-5 at the break, in favour of the Sligo town men. John Francis Carr caught the throw in, which he passed to Conan Marren. Marren fed a cross field ball to Aaron Murtagh, resulting in the first score of the second half. Three minutes later, Tourlestrane scored again. John Marren reacted quickest to a shot which came off the post, shortening Mary’s leading margin to a single point. Rooney scored a free for Mary’s, but was to be their last point of the game. With the scores 0-7 to 1-6, Tourlestrane dug deep to overcome their opponent’s in the next twenty minutes. Tourlestrane took the lead with John Marren’s third point of the game, with ten minutes to go. Nathan Rooney had a chance to level the game from a free, which fell short. Brian Kennedy caught the ball along the goal line and carried it as far as the far 65m line. The ball ended up with Conan Marren who scored another left footed point. Tourlestrane held good possession of the ball in the remaining minutes to see out the game. The lack of star power in the Mary’s forward line let them down in the end, as a lot of the scoring was relied on Nathan Rooney.

Final score, Tourlestrane 0-11, St Mary’s 1-6. Although this was quite a sloppy encounter, both sides showed some promise in stages of the game.

The midfield pairing of Kenny Gavigan and John Francis Carr continue to impress for Tourlestrane, as too did Jonny Martyn for Mary’s. Tourlestrane now await the winners of St Molaise Gaels and Coolaney/Mullinabreena in the cup final. TOURLESTRANE team: P McVeigh; D Leonard, B Kennedy, B Walsh; O Kennedy, S Dunne, J Leonard; K Gavigan, JF Carr; A Murtagh, G Gaughan, N Egan; C Marren, P Harte, J Marren. Subs: R Kennedy for Murtagh (54), E Kelly for Egan (54).

ST Mary’s team: F Ruddy, K Coen, C O’Grady, C McKeon; J Martyn, B McGarry, S Mulligan; B Smith, N McManus; C Darcy, R Guinan, N McDermott; A Lynch, N Rooney, P Kilcoyne. SUBS: C Watters for Guinan (18) REFEREE: M Duffy.