AIB Leinster Club SHC Quarter-Final

Castletown-Geoghegan 1-25 Thomastown 1-14

By Gerry Buckley at TEG Cusack Park

There was a sensational outcome in the Leinster club senior hurling quarter-final in Mullingar where Castletown-Geoghegan defeated Thomastown by an unflattering 11-point margin.

The Westmeath champions were worthy winners, turning in a tremendous performance all through, particularly in the second half which they won by 1-13 to 0-4.

The overwhelming favourites were forced to play almost all of the second half with 14 men after midfielder Jonjo Farrell was red-carded some 80 seconds after play resumed. However, such was the spirit and skill shown by the Lake County representatives that they may well have won regardless.

Colm Treacy opened the scoring with a point after 75 seconds for the wind-assisted Kilkenny champions, but the outstanding Niall O’Brien edged the home team ahead by the fourth minute with a brace of points – the second a classy score from play.

However, Thomastown responded in the best possible fashion from the resultant puckout when John Donnelly set up Luke Connellan who flashed the ball to the net. The underdogs were not overawed and they continued to stay well in touch, trailing by four points at the end of the opening quarter (1-6 to 0-5), with O’Brien and Robbie Donnelly both on song from placed balls.

Castletown-Geoghegan had a golden period between the 22^nd and 27^th minutes during which they outscored their opponents by five points (Liam Varley, David O’Reilly, Aonghus Clarke, O’Brien and Peter Clarke – all from play) to a Donnelly free. The sides were level at the end of the stipulated half-hour, with a Connellan point in injury-time edging Thomastown ahead by 1-10 to 0-12 at the interval.

Farrell’s sending off came just a minute after the resumption of play and it gave Castletown-Geoghegan an added boost. They tagged on five points without reply by the 38^th minute, including a hat-trick of frees from O’Brien, with Peter Clarke popping up all over the pitch to good effect. A needlessly-conceded free which Robbie Donnelly converted and what proved to be John Donnelly’s only score of the contest brought Thomastown to within two points (0-17 to 1-12) with 41 minutes elapsed.

However, all the momentum was with the Westmeath men who continued to pop over great points from a variety of angles, while their rearguard stood tall when called upon, with Aonghus Clarke helping back in defence.

O’Brien was unerring from placed balls while Peter Clarke, David O’Reilly and Liam Varley all ended up with three points from open play. Remarkably, the scoreboard read 0-24 to 1-14 at the end of normal time, with the Kilkenny men thwarted on a few occasions when they went for three-pointers. To compound the visitors’ misery, Castletown-Geoghegan pounced for a goal deep into added-time, O’Brien availing of confusion in the losers’ defence to whip the ball past Paul Barron to round off an astonishing afternoon.

Scorers for Castletown-Geoghegan: N O’Brien 1-13 (10fs), P Clarke, L Varley, D O’Reilly 0-3 each, P Murphy, C Murphy, A Clarke 0-1 each.

Scorers for Thomastown: R Donnelly 0-8 (8fs), L Connellan 1-1, B Staunton 0-2, E Donnelly, J Donnelly, C Treacy 0-1 each.

Castletown-Geoghegan: C O’Brien; P Murphy, A Glennon, D Maloney; J Bermingham, J Murphy, M Gavigan; P Clarke, S Clavin; C Murphy, A Clarke, L Varley; D O’Reilly, N O’Brien, J Gallagher.

Subs: D Fennell for C Murphy (56), M Heeney for J Murphy (60+4), P Kane for P Murphy (60+5).

Thomastown: P Barron; P Connellan, J Burke, N Kirwan; B Staunton, E Donnelly, Z Bay Hammond; P McDonald, J Farrell; R Donnelly, J Donnelly, L Connellan; J Holden, S Donnelly, C Treacy.

Subs: T O’Hanrahan for Holden (HT), A Cass for Treacy (43), D Prendergast for P Connellan (56), D Caulfield for McDonald (58).

Referee: C Daly (Kildare).