15 February 2010
St Gall’s hopes of becoming the first club ever to land a hurling and football club double ended in Croke Park on Saturday night when they were beaten by Kilkenny and Leinster champions St Lachtain’s in the final of the Intermediate Club Hurling Championship.
St Gall’s fared well during an exciting opening half when a series of points from CJ McGourty frees kept them in touch with the Kilkenny men. However their failure to take a couple of gilt edged goal chances midway through the half was to prove costly as just before the break the Freshford men got through for a goal by corner-forward Ollie O’Connor, a score which gave them a five point half-time advantage.
The second-half saw the Leinster champions go from strength to strength for while St Gall’s could only manage one point from play throughout the hour, St Lachtain’s had all six forwards and both midfielders on the scoresheet by the end.
With the Freshford defence brilliantly marshalled by eight times All Ireland medal winner Michael Kavanagh St Gall’s forwards found the going tough and that single score, brilliantly taken by Aodhan Gallagher, came after he had moved out to midfield.
St Lachtain’s manager Mick McCarthy summed up the game well at the end.
"St Gall's gave us a very hard challenge in the first half, but we were lucky in the sense that we took a few scores early on, and the goal we got came at a very good time. That put the little bit of distance that we required between the teams.
"We got a superb start to the second half and we just drove on."
A disappointing end for St Gall’s but they must now set their sights on next weekend’s All Ireland Senior Club football semi-final clash with Corofin of Galway in Parnell Park, Dublin.
Scorers -- St Lachtain's: J Fitzpatrick 2-1, E Guinan 0-6 (0- 3fs), O O'Connor 1-1, R Dowling 0-3, N Hickey, B Beckett 0-2 each, N McGree, D Brennan 0-1 each. St Gall's: C McGourty 0-7 (0-7fs), A Gallagher, J Flynn (0-1 sideline), K Stewart (0-1f) 0-1 each.
St Lachtain's -- T Delaney; M Cormack, M Kavanagh, G Dalton; S Hayes, J Costelloe, N Phelan; N McGee, N Hickey; J Fitzpatrick, D Brennan, R Dowling; O O'Connor, B Beckett, E Guinan. Subs: B Kennedy for Phelan (55-56), P Mullan for O'Connor (58), B Kennedy for Fitzpatrick (60).
St Gall's: C Austin; D Sheehan, T Austin, S Morrison; J McDaniel, K McGourty, A Healy; J Flynn, K Stewart; S Burke, K McDonald, C Gallagher; C McGourty, A Gallagher, S McAreavey. Subs: S O'Hara for C Gallagher (36), C O'Grady for Burke (37), A Hannaway for McDonald (55), E Cooke for Sheehan (55), A Gough for C McGourty (58).
Ref: D Copps (Cork).
