Toome spring from traps to beat Drom

Toomevara showed grit and quality to produce a performance that defeated Drom & Inch in round two of the County Senior Hurling Championship on Saturday, and, in the process, continued their interest in the competition.

GAA: FBD Insurance Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship Group 1

Toomevara 1-24

Drom & Inch 1-19

The greyhounds came into the contest knowing that a loss would end their championship interest, with Kilruane's win over Borris-Ileigh making the fixture very black and white from the North club’s perspective.

However, they rose to the challenge with an impressive first-half performance with Adam Hall’s goal in the sixth minute giving them the momentum to propel into a significant half-time lead of ten points as Drom were cleaned out in their forward division with all of their scores coming from distance.

Darragh McCarthy was once again in fine form as the 19-year-old finished with 0-12 (four from play) and didn’t squander any chance at the posts while the Toomevara back line smothered the Drom attack throughout; with the second half Drom goal coming from an uncharacteristic mistake from Liam Ryan.

That goal - scored by Maidhc Fitzpatrick - came in the 43rd minute and brought Drom within six points but they couldn’t muster the scores to truly put the result in doubt with Toome finding the scores at the right times to see themselves over the line.

Jack Delaney set the tone inside ten seconds when he fired over a fine point from play under pressure; one of three first-half points as Toome looked hungry early doors.Their early dominance was converted on the scoreboard with Adam Hall and Mark McCarthy finding the target, just before Delaney and Darragh McCarthy linked up to put Hall through on goal to bury to the back of the net for a 1-4 to 0-2 lead.

Drom reduced the arrears thanks to points from David Collins, Cormac Fitzpatrick, and Fintan Purcell, but Toome took off again with three Darragh McCarthy scores (2 frees), along with points from Robbie Quirke and Jack Delaney which gave them a deserved lead of 1-11 to 0-6 after 23 minutes.

The Mid side were finding it hard to get any change from the Toomevara defence with most of their scores coming from range as the Greyhounds hit four of the last five points of the half; including one from Conor O’Farrell, brilliantly set up by a cross-field Mark McCarthy sideline cut. All Toome to that point as the scoreboard read 1-15 to 0-8 at half-time.

Toome kept tipping over their scores to uphold their advantage in the first ten minutes after the restart with brothers Darragh & Kevin McCarthy hitting four points between them, but Drom hit their purple patch with Johnny Ryan making an impact from the bench with two points before Tommy Nolan made the most of the Liam Ryan blunder in the 43rd minute to square a handpass to Maidhc Fitzpatrick to finish from close range.

That left the score at 1-19 to 1-13 and Drom had even dragged the game back to a four-point deficit by the 56th minute and even turned down an easy free to try find a second goal; Callanan hitting a short free to Maidhc Fitz’ but was denied by juggling save from Rory Brislane who just about scampered back to his line after half-blocking the shot to clear the danger.

In essence, that was the winning of the game for Toomevara with Jake Hackett making his usual impact off the bench with the next score to settle the nerves, and with late scores from Conor O’Farrell and Darragh McCarthy, Toome prolonged their season for at least another game ahead of a round three clash with Kilruane MacDonaghs.

Drom & Inch will now be in survival mode in their final game as they face a mouth-watering tie with arch-rivals Borris-Ileigh in two weeks and will need a significant win to avoid finishing bottom, plus Kilruane win over Toomevara to have a chance of finishing in second place on score difference.

Player of the Match: Darragh McCarthy (Toomevara)

Toomevara: Rory Brislane (7); Liam Ryan (7), Andrew Ryan (7), Seamus O’Farrell (7); Josh McCarthy (7), Barry O’Connell (7), Jack Ryan (7); Robbie Quirke (0-1, 7), Conor O’Farrell (0-3, 8); Jack Delaney (0-3, 7), Darren Delaney (7), Mark McCarthy (0-2, 7); Darragh McCarthy (0-12, 0-7f, 0-1 65) 9), Kevin McCarthy (0-1, 7), Adam Hall (1-1, 7).

Subs: Jake Hackett (0-1, 7) for M McCarthy (47); Shane Nolan (6) for K McCarthy (53); Josh Powell (6) for S O’Farrell (54); Colm Canning (NR) for Hall (58); David Nolan (NR) for D Delaney (60+1).

Drom & Inch: Eoin Collins (7); Michael Campion (5), Jamie Moloney (5), Lorcan Campion (6); Podge Campion (0-2, 7), Fintan Purcell (0-2, 7), Jack Ryan (0-1, 7); John Campion (6), Maidhc Fitzpatrick (1-2, 7); David Collins (0-2, 7), David Butler (6), Tony Cahill (0-1, 6); Tommy Nolan (6), Seamus Callanan (0-5f, 6), Cormac Fitzpatrick (0-2, 7).

Subs: Stevie Nolan (6) for T Cahill (HT); Johnny Ryan (0-2, 7) for M Campion (HT); Cormac Cahill (6) for Butler (50).

Referee: Michael Kennedy (Newcastle)