Thurles jubilant as they finally lower Flannans’ colours

Thurles CBS 0-14 St Flannans 0-11

1992 was the last time Thurles lowered Flannans' colours in the Harty Cup so it was easy to understand the scenes of jubilation.

Seven times these two evenly matched sides were level before Thurles finally pulled away in the closing minutes. The victory was all the more meritorious as the winners had lost the services of influential midfielder Joe Dixon with 10 minutes to go.

He, along with Steve Willis had succeeded in breaking the grip of the Flannans pair, but the introduction of Tomas Hennessy for Dixon worked well and Thurles with some Brian Moran and David Shepherd inspiration in attack, finished in style to record a deserved win.

Flannans elected to play with the wind advantage. Their hurling was that bit sharper particularly that of Jonathan Clancy and the powerfully built Bernard Gaffney.

After the sides had been level three times in 10 minutes, Flannans opened up a three point gap inside the next seven as Gaffney began to pose a lot of problems for the Thurles defence and his three points had his side 0-7 to 0-4 in front after 20 minutes.

Thurles finally began to get on top in defence where Michael Collins and Kieran Shorthall were excellent and with their forwards now seeing more of the ball, Brian Moran and Steve Willis knocked over a succession of points to leave them just 0-8 to 0-7 in arrears at the break.

Amazingly, Flannans played into Thurles' hands when they resumed with Bernard Gaffney at full forward where he never posed the same threat.

Thurles contributed to their huge second half improvement by switching the impressive Steve Willis to midfield and with Tom King now coming into his own at centre back, the Tipp side began to dominate in the key areas.

After the sides were level for the seventh and final time, county minor David Shepherd drove forward for the lead point and as the Flannans defence began to wilt, the impressive Brian Moran added two more, one from a 65 before Tomas Hennessy put four points between the sides with five minutes remaining.

However, there was still a kick left in Flannans and when Jonathan Clancy pointed it was his side's first score for 10 minutes there was just a goal between the sides.

But, the Thurles defence and in particular Michael Collins, Tom King and Liam Devane, coped admirably with Flannans' best efforts.

Scorers for Thurles: B. Moran 0-6 (0-4 frees, 0-1 65); S. Willis 0-5 (0-2 frees); D. Shepherd 0-2; T. Hennessy 0-1.

St. Flannans: B. Gaffney 0-4 (0-1 free); J. Clancy 0-3; A. Brown 0-2; J. Cusack, D. Carroll 0-1 each.

THURLES: B. Donovan; M. Collins, K. Shorthall, D. Paterson; L. Devane, T, King, E. Ryan; J. Dixon, D. Murphy; S. Willis, D. Shepherd, R. O'Gorman; B. Moran, C. Sweeney, B. Barrett. Subs. D. Kiely for Murphy; T. Hennesy for Dixon; B. O'Loughlin for Barrett.

ST. FLANNANS: S. Murphy; A. Byrne, J. McInerney, S. Hickey; M. Moloney, S. O'Brien, T. Kennedy; J. O'Connor, S. Carroll; A. Griffey, J. Clancy, K. Kennedy; B. Gaffney, A. Brown, J. Cusack.

Referee; R. Barry (Limerick).