GILLANE IS HERO OF HOUR
Limerick 2-23 Galway 2-19
AARON GILLANE steered Limerick into the All-ireland U-21 final when he kept his nerve to edge them in front in Thurles.
Evan Niland of Galway had just tied the sides for the tenth time when Gillane pointed and Limerick pushed on from there to score three more in added time.
Now they will bid to maintain their 100% record from five U-21 finals when they meet Kilkenny in three weeks.
They looked to be coasting to victory when Barry Murphy got their second goal to help them lead by 2-13 to 0-14 after 36 minutes. But Galway, hoping to join their seniors and minors in All-ireland finals, never gave up.
Senior star Conor Whelan brust through and when he was denied Jack Coyne followed up for a goal.
And then Galway edged two points in front 12 minutes from the end when Whelan cracked home a superb goal.
However Limerick, battle-hardened after a tough Munster campaign, finished strongly to deny a Galway side playing their first match in the competition.
Peter Casey was the early Limerick hero when he struck for 1-2 inside 10 minutes. SCORERS - LIMERICK: A Gillane 0-8 (4f, 2 ’65); P Casey & B Murphy 1-2 each; B Nash 0-4; T Grimes 0-2; R Hanley, C Lynch, A La Touche Cosgrave, K Hayes & C Boylan 0-1 each.
GALWAY: C Whelan 1-3 (2fs); J Coyne 1-1; T Monaghan & B Concannon 0-4 each; D Nevin 0-2 (1f); K Mchugo, S Linnane, S Loftus (f), J Grealish & E Niland (f) 0-1 each.