Loughrea 1-17

Turloughmore 0-15

LOUGHREA are no longer limping around in defence of their Galway senior hurling title. Instead, the champions are standing tall as the stakes get higher.

After failing to catch fire in their group campaign and staring down the barrel of defeat against Clarinbridge a fortnight previously, Loughrea have suddenly caught fire when the team’s need was greatest.

If Tiernan Killeen set the tone for their late quarter-final escapology feat, it was his brother, Cullen, who was the driving force behind this deserved victory over Turloughmore in wretched conditions under lights at Pearse Stadium on Saturday night.

Killeen was a hive of productive energy around the midfield sector, scoring a point and being the playmaker for several more. He was the semi-final’s most influential performer on an evening Loughrea were slicker and more cohesive than a Turloughmore outfit which must now be despairing of ending the club’s long title famine.

If Killeen was Loughrea’s star man, he had most conspicuous support from the likes of Kieran Hanrahan, Brian Keary, another Killeen, Caimin, a resurgent Darren Shaughnessy, Shane Morgan and Jamie Ryan but, in truth, the title holders hardly possessed a weak link.

Loughrea were able to engineer space and openings for their attack in a way Turloughmore struggled to after the opening quarter – ironically, the vanquished’s best period of a physical match when facing the wind and rain.

Their 0-12 to 0-7 lead at half-time was far from insurmountable but the Loughrea backs increasingly tied up the Turloughmore forwards in a congested landing zone, so much so that not one opposition attacker raised a flag from play in the second half.

Having run up big tallies on their way to the semi-final, being a battle-hardened team and driven by a hunger to finally capture the club’s first title in 40-years, Turloughmore were entitled to fancy their chances of toppling the champions. Early on, they were doing most things right. There was no holding back and Seán Loftus was a significant threat in their inside line. They were level at 0-5 each after 17 minutes, and so far, so good.

But the rest of the match was, frankly, a struggle for them. Their short puck-out strategy put them under pressure at times while the normally influential Whelan brothers, Dara and Cillian, couldn’t get on the breaks. Furthermore, apart from multiple All-Star Daithi Burke, the Turloughmore defence lacked another stand out figure.

Yet, only for the interventions of goalkeeper Darragh Walsh at the end of one half and the start of the other – he foiled both Shaughnessy and Anthony Burns – the game would have gone beyond Turloughmore’s reach far quicker than it did.

In that context, Walsh didn’t deserve the indignity of spilling the sliotar from Brian Keary’s delivery into his own net in the dying seconds. The keeper was already looking out the field to see where to best place his clearance only for calamity to strike. Walsh was devastated afterwards but his conscience should be clear – Turlough were already beaten.

Pictured: Caimin Killeen of Loughrea on the attack against Turloughmore’s Barry Callanan during Saturday’s Senior Hurling semi-final at Pearse Stadium. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.