Turloughmore beat old rivals Liam Mellows with surprising ease

By NOEL CARNEY Turloughmore .0-17 Liam Mellows .1-8 TURLOUGHMORE gave their most efficient performance for some time when comfortably seeing off the feeble challenge of a very disappointing Liam Mellows side at Pearse Stadium on Sunday. Granted, the Hoops were helped by the woefully inaccurate city men who shot five wides in the first half and no fewer than eleven in the second period, and even though Turlough' were guilty of sending twelve chances off target there was a gulf in class between the teams when it came to scoring from play.[private] The losers could only manage four points through Niall McInerney (2), Shane Minton and David Collins to supplement Tadhg Haran's fine 1-4 from placed balls. In contrast, Turloughmore got scores from no fewer than ten players with two half-backs and both midfielders accumulating 0-6 between them. Five of their forwards also scored from play and the other, Brian Murphy, landed three from frees and turned in an energetic display. Against a strong wind that, for once at this venue, was blowing out to sea, Mellows led briefly early on when county panellist Tadhg Haran (an All-Ireland winner at both minor and under-21 levels) drove over a second-minute free but Turlough' responded with points by Gary Burke and Cian Burke. Haran added two more scores from well-taken placed balls by the 20-minute mark but they were beginning to struggle. The Black and Whites, inspired by their young captain Matthew Keating who drove over from the left wing, were getting on top. Brian Murphy chipped in with his three frees and experienced campaigners Darren O'Shaughnessy and Francis Forde added scores from play to make it 0-8 to 0-3 before Shane Minton got a similar one for Liam Mellows. The city team had goalkeeper Paddy Gannon to thank for making a great save to deny Gary Burke and he gathered the ball a second time in a goalmouth scramble. He was helpless though when Burke intercepted a clearance and steered his shot between the posts and when a fine point by midfielder Denis Forde was answered by a fourth Tadhg Haran free it was 0-10 to 0-5 at the break. And with wind assistance to come when play resumed, Mellows were still in with a great chance. Unfortunately for them it was Turlough' who came storming out of the blocks. Suitably fired up by manager Micheál Donoghue, who led Clarenbridge to an All-Ireland Clubs title, they quickly put three more scores on the board: Ronan Badger got the first to round off a good move; the hard-working Denis Forde showed great persistence to get through a cluster of players for another, and when Daithí Burke converted a 65-metre free it was 0-13 to 0-5. The Turloughmore half-back line of Brian Holland, Daithí Burke and Mark Murphy were in commanding form and with Matthew Keating and Denis Forde doing well at midfield their forwards were getting plenty of chances. Darren O'Shaughnessy, Brian Murphy and Gary Burke were particularly dangerous and Cian Burke, Francis Forde and Ronan Badger also weighed in with timely scores to keep the momentum going. Liam Mellows's new manager Jeffrey Lynskey, now retired after a career of great service as a player, must have been exasperated as his charges wasted chance after chance, nine in 17 minutes, and a solitary long-range score by Niall McInerney was all they had to show for quite a bit of pressure in the third quarter. To add to their woes, Brian Holland and Matthew Keating pushed the opposing tally up to 0-15, well clear of the 0-6 the city side had managed. A rasping drive to the roof of the Turloughmore net by Tadhg Haran from a close-in free briefly lifted the men in green and white but Darren O'Shaughnessy landed a beauty at the other end. An O'Shaughnessy free then sailed over to sandwich points from play by David Collins and Niall McInerney, while Haran sent one free whistling just the wrong side of a post and had another one blocked as time ran out. Mellows placed county star David Collins at centre half-forward for this game but as the pressure on his defence increased he was drawn backwards either by accident or design and the experiment was only a limited success. Former Galway defender John Lee tried hard but he had his hands full with the hard-working Darren O'Shaughnessy and they were missing Aonghus Callanan who is in Australia. Tadhg Haran was their main scoring threat while Niall McInerney and Shane Minton had their moments. This was a very encouraging start to the Championship by the winners and it will give them belief for the challenges that lie ahead. They had several fine displays all over the field but Liam Mellows have a lot of questions to answer next time out or they could be heading into a relegation battle. Still, it would be dangerous to read too much into one match and it will be interesting to see if Turlough' can drive on to better things this year or if Mellows can put this bad day at the office behind them. Turloughmore: P. Dullaghan; C. Morris, F. Moore, M. Casserly; B. Holland (0-1), D. Burke (0-1, free), M. Murphy; M. Keating (0-2), D. Forde (0-2); C. Burke (0-1), D. O'Shaughnessy (0-3, one free), F. Forde (0-1); B. Murphy (0-3, all frees), R. Badger (0-1), G. Burke (0-2). Subs., M. Morris, for Badger. Liam Mellows: P. Gannon; R. Bennis, S. Morrissey, B. Fahy; D. Fahy, J. Lee, J. Hughes; J. O'Halloran, S. Gilchrist; N. McInerney (0-2), D. Collins (0-1), B. Howley; S. Minton (0-1), T. Haran (1-4, all frees), B. Lee. Subs., C. Hynes, for B. Lee; A. Clancy, for D. Fahy; S. Hynes, for Gilchrist. Referee: Gerry Donoghue (Kilnadeema-Leitrim). Herald Sport Man of the Match: Matthew Keating (Turloughmore). [/private]