Loughrea Boss "On Top Of The World" After Historic Galway Final Win
Loughrea manager Tommy Kelly was beaming with pride on Saturday night after his side sealed a dramatic Galway SHC final win over St Thomas’, claiming back-to-back county titles for the first time in the club’s history.
A late goal from Darren Shaughnessy under the Pearse Stadium floodlights proved decisive in a gripping contest that ended 1-15 to 1-14. Conor Cooney struck a thunderous free to the Loughrea net in the sixth minute of injury time to narrow the gap to one, but referee Liam Gordon’s whistle sounded shortly after, sparking huge celebrations for the men in maroon and white.
It was Loughrea’s fourth Tom Callanan Cup triumph overall, and a first final defeat in 13 years for St Thomas’, who had been chasing their ninth county title in that period.
Reflecting on a hard-fought win, Tommy Kelly said:
I’m on top of the world, it’s amazing.When you start out hurling, you’re dreaming of winning a county cup with your club and they’re so hard to win.
We know how hard they are to win, and tonight again it was down to a puck of a ball. That’s so much credit to St Thomas’ that they had that in the locker.
St Thomas’ pushed hard late on, but Kelly explained that Loughrea had prepared for that final surge.
We knew that was coming, we knew they were going to come with a push. It was how far we could get ahead of them before that push came.So it’s all about reaction and the goal Conor Cooney hit there was a bullet, and if you had ten goalies, you wouldn’t block it.
Kelly also paid tribute to the depth in his squad, who overcame 15 wides to get the job done.
The commitment of our lads right through the year, we have 35 guys on the panel and I’m not codding you, most of them could be on any club team around the place.
The final was a tense, physical battle throughout. Anthony Burns was outstanding for Loughrea, hitting 0-5 from play and setting up Shaughnessy’s decisive goal. He had 0-4 to his name by half-time, with Loughrea leading 0-11 to 0-6.
Cooney kept St Thomas’ in the hunt with frees throughout, finishing with 1-10 in total, including that dramatic late goal, but it wasn’t enough to deny Loughrea a famous night.
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