County man Glynn bags a hat-trick as Ardrahan thrash hapless Carnmore
Stephen GlennonSports
Ardrahan 4-20
Carnmore 0-9
ARDRAHAN, as was expected, powered into the knockout stages of the senior hurling championship as Galway star Jonathan Glynn tallied 3-2 in his side’s out of lowly Carnmore at Kenny Park on Saturday evening.
Out of the championship, Carnmore had little or nothing to play for and, while they may have toiled with a certain measure of pride in the opening period, they totally capitulated after the break as the Ardrahan attack ran amok.
As for Ardrahan, they were thoroughly professional in killing off this fixture in the second half – running up a huge tally as they needed to do in case the other meeting of Portumna and Athenry didn’t go their way – but there were elements of their play that was untidy and they cannot be happy with.
In truth, it must have been difficult for Conor Dolan’s charges to get themselves up for a game against opposition that were beaten by 29 points in the earlier round – and, out of the championship, Carnmore were unlikely to make any significant improvement in the interim.
That said, with time almost up in the first half, there was only three points – 0-9 to 0-6 – between the sides. However, when Jonathan Glynn raced onto loose ball from a Cormac Diviney delivery and shot to the net on 28 minutes, that goal proved to be the deal-breaker.
In any event, Ardrahan led 1-10 to 0-6 at the break – it could have been more but Glynn opted to put an 11th minute penalty over the bar – but they still would have been far from content with their showing given they hit 10 wides in this period and left numerous other efforts short of the mark.
Whatever was said in the Ardrahan dressing-room though at the interval had the desired effect as within 30 seconds of the restart Glynn had bagged his second goal – this time getting on the end of a David Kennedy delivery.
The onslaught continued with Jason Kennedy and Cian Walsh both tallying fine points before Glynn and Walsh saw goal chances go a begging on 36 and 37 minutes respectively. But Ardrahan had not long to wait for the third goal as Glynn completed his hat-trick with a deft flick to the net on 39 minutes.
Leading 3-12 to 0-6, it was just a question of how many more scores Ardrahan would put on the board in the remaining 20 minutes. The answer was 1-8.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.