Minnows given a torrid time by ruthless Blues

Mayo SHC – Round 2 

Tooreen 10-21 

St Ciaran’s 1-04 

Anthony Hennigan in Adrian Freeman Memorial Park 

Tooreen posted a brutal reminder of the chasm that exists between the haves and the have nots of Mayo hurling, when inflicting a 44 points defeat upon newcomers St Ciaran’s in Saturday’s second round of the senior championship.

The pick of the county’s seven junior clubs were swatted aside by last season’s All-Ireland intermediate finalists who, quite incredibly, were 20 points in front after only 14 minutes. They even withdrew the game’s top scorer, Shane Boland, with still the guts of twenty minutes of the match left to play.

Smacking the crossbar twice, and the side-netting, and with a wide count that had already reached double figures before half-time, in truth, the scoreline could have been anything Tooreen wanted it to be. Indeed given just how emphatic the Blues had been in overcoming their fiercest – albeit understrength – rivals Ballyhaunis in the opening round, a sixth senior title in seven seasons is looking increasingly likely, when those two sides reconvene in the county final.

St Ciaran’s, who draw from Moytura, Ballina Stephenites, Ballyvary, Caiseal Gaels, Gaeltacht Iorrais, Westport and Claremorris, had offered the briefest suggestion that they might ask a question or two of their hosts, when Matthew Connor cut in to fire past a wrong-footed Bobby Douglas inside two minutes, negating a goal at the other end by Shane Boland just 30 seconds earlier. But Boland had a hat-trick to his name by the 18th minute and would have had a fourth goal were it not for the crossbar. In fact, in a scarcely believable spell, between the ninth and eleventh minutes, Tooreen scored four consecutive goals, including Boland’s second and one apiece by Eoin Delaney, Oisin Greally and midfielder Daniel Huane.

The conductor at this stage was Kenny Feeney, spraying the sliothar this way and that to contort the St Ciaran’s defence, but he himself had to wait until the second quarter to become the sixth Tooreen forward to score. His trio of points from play were augmented by further goals from Shane Boland, alert to a long-range Sean Kenny free that dropped short, and Eoin Delaney, off a give and go with Feeney.

The Connor boys, Luke, at midfield, and Matthew on the right of the attack, were battling particularly hard in the face of the adversity facing their team but a 27th minute free by centre-forward Luke Hurley was the only addition to the early goal by St Ciaran’s and so by half-time, with Liam Lavin, two, Fergal Boland, three, Shane Boland and Sean Kenny, a ’65, also scoring points for the locals, Tooreen remarkably led 8-10 to 1-1 at half-time.

Fergal Boland had rattled off three more points and Eoin Delaney clipped the top of the crossbar before the corner-forward did indeed score Tooreen’s ninth goal – and complete his hat-trick – off the back of Joe Boyle’s unselfish pass across the square. A tenth wasn’t long in arriving either, with substitute Shane Morley and Eoin Delaney combining to set-up Fergal Boland, which left the scoreboard reading 10-17 to 1-3 after 45-minutes – Hurley having added another couple of frees for the visitors.

St Ciaran’s had made a raft of changes early in the second-half and to be fair, they became a more competitive side in the final quarter and were it not for inaccuracy could well have improved the look of the scoreline. But by full-time the cold hard truth was that the amalgamation had gone the entire match without raising a single white flag from play.

Scorers – Tooreen: Shane Boland 3-2, Eoin Delaney 3-1, Fergal Boland 1-6, Oisin Greally 2-0, Kenny Feeney 0-5 (2f), Liam Lavin 0-4, Daniel Huane 1-0, David Harrison 0-2, Sean Kenny 0-1 (’65).

St Ciaran’s: Luke Hurley 0-4f, St Ciaran’s 1-0.

Tooreen: Bobby Douglas; Conor Henry, David Kenny, Gary Nolan; Joe Boyle, Stephen Coyne, John Cassidy; Sean Kenny, Daniel Huane; Liam Lavin, Fergal Boland, Oisin Greally; Shane Boland, Kenny Feeney, Eoin Delaney. Subs: Davog Freyne and Ciaran Finn (for Douglas and Nolan ht), James Byrne and Darren Murray (for Greally and Henry 35), David Harrison (for Boyle 39), Daniel Cunnane (for Coyne 40), Shane Morley (for S Boland 43), James Greally and Fiachra Glavey (for Lavin and S Kenny 53), Sean Lynskey (for F Boland 55).

St Ciaran’s: Steven Lane Spellman; Chris Walsh, Darren Williams, Keith Collins; Adam Walsh, Michael Gallagher, Brian Loughrey; Luke Connor, Ronan Fallon; Darra Gallagher, Luke Hurley, Eoin McGrath; James Gallagher, Kealan Gallagher, Matthew Connor. Subs used: Kevin Duffy (for Lane Spellman 18), Brendan McGrath (for Walsh ht), Paddy Dozio, Shane McGahon, Peter Murphy, Gavin Hunt and Killian Gallagher (for Williams, Loughrey, L Connor, Fallon and Collins 37).

REF: Eoin Shaughnessy (Castlebar)