Turloughmore 0-16 Pearses 0-13: A proverbial game of two halves in a rain soaked Duggan Park, Ballinasloe earlier this evening. Pearses dominated the first half and led by five points at half-time. A previously influential Cyril Donnellan did not return for the second half due to injury and Turlough turned the tables. Seán Linnane was key to the turnaround, hitting three points off the bench.
Pearses flew out of the blocks and landed the first three points of the game. Lee Murphy opened the scoring, before two Cyril Donnellan points, one from a free after good work to win it, by Colm Raftery. Matthew Keating pointed for Turlough, but Gary Lally and two more by Donnellan seen Pearses lead by 0-6 to 0-1 after 12 minutes.
Two Turlough white flags, one from a Ronan Badger free, narrowed the gap. Cian Lawless in the Pearses goal pulled off a fine stop to keep his goal intact. Pearses went on to hit the next four points (from play) to open a commanding seven point lead after 29 minutes, 0-11 to 0-4. Two important points before half-time for Turloughmore narrowed the gap to a more manageable five, before Referee Christy Browne called a halt to proceedings, 0-11 to 0-6.
The second half was Turlough’s and they opened the scoring, before Tomás Flannery landed a good point on the run from 45 yards for Pearses. Three in-a-row for Turlough — in their changed blue strip — before Flannery landed a free, 0-13 to 0-10. Turlough led by the recently introduced Seán Linnane, as well as Seán Loftus, Dáithí Burke and Fergal Moore hit the last six points of the game. There were goal chances for both teams in the second half. Lawless again pulled off a fine stop at the town end, while Tomás Flannery flashed a shot across the goal at the other end as Pearses pushed for an equaliser towards the end.
Pearses: C Lawless; K Donnellan, T Kenny, R Lally; R O’Neill, C Raftery (0-1), K Hardiman (0-1); C Donnellan (0-5), C Fahey; R Bellew (0-1), C Ward (0-1), T Flannery (0-1); G Lally (0-1), S Hardiman, L Murphy (0-1). Subs used: S Raftery, E Cunniffe, B Egan, J Gelston.