Champs catch fire to defeat Loughmore
FBD Insurance County Senior Hurling Championship Preliminary Quarter Final
Clonoulty/Rossmore 1-33
Loughmore/Castleiney 3-22 (AET)
Report: Shane Brophy in Littleton
MATCH DIGEST
Man of the Match: Timmy Hammersley (Clonoulty/Rossmore)
SCORERS – Clonoulty-Rossmore: Timmy Hammersley 0-19 (14 frees, 1 65); Michael Ryan 0-4; Sean Maher 1-1; Cathal Bourke 0-3; Conor Hammersley, Dillon Quirke (1 s-cut) 0-2 each; Fiachra O'Keeffe, Thomas Butler 0-1 each.
Loughmore/Castleiney: John McGrath 0-9 (7 frees, 1 65); Noel McGrath 0-6 (2 frees); Evan Sweeney 2-0; Liam McGrath 1-2 (0-1 free); Tomas McGrath 0-3; Liam Treacy, Peter Nyland 0-1 each.
Defending champions Clonoulty/Rossmore showed their battle hardened qualities to come from behind to send Loughmore/Castleiney crashing out of the County Senior Hurling Championship on Sunday.
The holders have been teetering on the brink for weeks now, having needed a replay and then late scores against Eire Og Annacarty in the West Final to continue their defence of the Dan Breen Cup, but few will bet against them repeating after this performance as they wore down a Loughmore/Castleiney side whose blistering start was undone by a 20th minute red card to Liam McGrath which proved costly in the end.
McGrath was dismissed on 21 minutes, moments after he had fired home Loughmore's third goal for a 3-4 to 0-8 lead. McGrath retaliated on Joey O'Keeffe in the aftermath, just two minutes after both were booked for an off the ball incident.
Certainly the red mist descened on McGrath and down a man for the remainder of normal time, Loughmore led the whole way until the first minute of added time when Timmy Hammersley converted a free to send the game to extra time.
As he had been through their successful campaign last year, Hammersley was to the fore for Clonoulty-Rossmore, particularly in extra time where he ran the game from centre forward as they pulled away, helped by a Sean Maher goal at the start of extra time.
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