16 August 2009
County champions Cushendall will meet Loughgiel in the semi-final of the Senior Hurling Championship after both recorded wins in Saturday evening’s quarter finals in Casement Park.
Cushendall had things mostly their own way against Gortnamona in the first game, though the Belfast side played some fine hurling during the opening quarter and after falling two points behind they hit back to score five of the next six scores, with corner-forward Dessie McClean and centre-half forward Sean Kelly causing the Ruairi Og rearguard no end of problems.
However Cushendall began to get on top, and with Neill McManus showing signs of a welcome return to form they pushed on to lead by 1-12 to 0-6 at the break, the goal coming from McManus who lined out a right-half forward.
In the second-half the champions began to show their class and added further goals from McManus, Shane McNaughton and Eamon Laverty to secure a semi-final spot. Despite the inevitability of the outcome Gortnamona continued to play some neat hurling and near the end they grabbed the goal of the day when a sweeping move started by substitute goalkeeper Robert Fisher ended with a Dessie McClean firing high to the net at the other end.
SHAMROCKS FIGHT BACK
Loughgiel booked their semi-final spot with a 2-13 to 0-11 win over Rossa in the second quarter-final, but it was far from plain sailing for the Shamrocks.
2004 champions Rossa, who now play their hurling in Division 2, got away to a flying start and were 0-5 to 0-0 ahead after just five minutes, the bulk of the scores coming from Chris Hamill frees, though corner forwards Michael Turley and Michael Armstrong both added a couple of real beauties from play.
Hamill had a great chance to really drive home Rossa’s advantage when he was put clear in front of goal with the score at 0-5 to 0-2 but the former county star hurried his shot and sent the ball wide of the target.
Slowly Loughgiel clawed their way back into the game, and with corner-forward Joey Scullion in excellent form they closed the gap to 0-8 to 0-6 by half-time.
The decisive scores came in the opening minutes of the second-half when the Shamrocks centre-forward Eddie McCloskey grabbed two quick goals, the first inside thirty seconds after a bad mistake by the Rossa defence. McCloskey’s second goal followed good work by Joey Scullion in the right corner, though he still had work to do after receiving possession he stepped inside two defenders to finish expertly from close range.
From then on Rossa were always struggling and in fact they only added three points during the second-half as their form of the first quarter deserted them. Loughgiel, though far from impressive, kept picking off the points to book a semi-final meeting with Cushendall in three weeks time.
