Portumna make hard work of winning first title

Portumna 2-13 Loughrea 2-9

But on a beautiful sun-kissed afternoon in Pearse Stadium, they made really heavy weather of it.

The Shannon-side town had come into this game as warm favourites, and for most of the first half that station looked justified.

However, two goals from Loughrea corner-forward Kenneth Colleran just before the break, threw this game into the melting-pot, and there it simmered until the end, with Portumna eventually emerging as worthy champions.

The opening quarter was far from inspiring. The sides were level on three points apiece after 17 minutes, with free-takers Frank Canning of Portumna, and Johnny O'Loughlin of Loughrea in good form.

But then Portumna began to settle, and reeled off four points without reply and looked to set to pull away. However, Loughrea struck back.

O'Loughlin was the principal instigator, taking a Gavin Keary centre and taking off, splitting the outer defence, drawing the inside cover, and laying off perfectly for Colleran to goal.

That was in the 26th minute, but it was to get even better for the now-noisy Loughrea supporters in the near 9,000 crowd. Wing-forward Johnny Maher added a further point to tie things up, (1-4 to 0-7).

Three minutes after the first goal that Loughrea crowd were in raptures. Colleran latched onto another Keary centre, somehow broke free from a ruck of defenders, and again gave Ivan Canning no chance in the Portumna goal.

O'Loughlin added a pointed free late into injury time to give his side a four point lead (2-5 to 0-7), and leave Portumna's hopes of a first SHC title looking dodgy in the extreme as they faced into the breeze.

Adding to the Portumna woes was the fact that ace forward Damien Hayes suffered a heavy knock in that first half.

The opening phase of the second half was a lot like the first, slow and stodgy, with neither side really showing any form.

Portumna had the first three points, all from frees, two from the gun of sharp-shooting Canning, the other, a long-ranger from the roaming Andrew Smith. O'Loughlin replied with a brace leaving it at 0-11 to 2-8 after fifty minutes.

But then the game turned in Portumna's favour. A bit of foolishness by a Loughrea player saw what would have been a free from inside the Portumna 45, brought forward twenty metres, and Andrew Smith's long ball landed in the Loughrea red-zone where it broke to Kevin Hayes.

The big full-forward made no mistake, blasting to the roof of the net, and the sides were level.

That was when Portumna showed they really had the nerve for this one. First a free from wide left on the 20m line was driven straight between the posts by Frank Canning. Then came a precision multi-player move, ending with Andrew Smith scoring his sides' second goal in three minutes.

O'Loughlin brought it back to within a goal, one minute into added time, but that was quickly negated by Smith.

Full-back Eoin Lynch, midfielders Leo Smith and David Canning, free-taker David Canning, Andrew Smith and Kevin Hayes all did their bit. Doing more than their bit were Portumna's two Galway senior stars Damien Hayes (man of the match), and team captain Ollie Canning.

"This is the end of a long hard road", Canning announced in an eloquent acceptance speech, "we've been knocking on the door for the last few years, but I always had the dream of one day standing up here accepting the county cup.

"We've been knocked back so many times, I don't know how many times we've reached quarter-finals, semi-finals, but between one thing or another we always seemed to get caught.

"That's the way this game goes, this year we beat Athenry by a point, so it swung our way. We always knew we had the ability, it was just a case of getting over the finish line".

Scorers Portumna: F. Canning 0-8 (all frees); A. Smith 1-3 (0-1 free); K. Hayes 1-1; D. Canning 0-1.

Loughrea: K. Colleran 2-0; J. O'Loughlin 0-8 (0-6 frees); J. Maher 0-1.

PORTUMNA: I. Canning; M. Gill, E. Lynch, E. McEntee; P. Treacy, O. Canning (c), A. O'Donnell; L. Smith, D. Canning; F. Canning, I. Muldoon, D. Hayes; N. Hayes, K. Hayes, A. Smith. Subs: V. Treacy (P. Treacy 57).

LOUGHREA: N. Murray; T. Regan, G. Kennedy, D. McClearn; J. Dooley, N. Shaughnessy (c), S. Creavan; G. Keary, B. Mahony; J. O'Loughlin, V. Maher, J. Maher; P. Connors, M. Kearns, K. Colleran. Subs: K. Daniels (Connors 37).

Referee: M. Bodkin (Paraic Pearce).