Tooreen's Fergal Boland. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Mayo SHC Final
Tooreen 1-21 Ballyhaunis 0-22
By Colm Gannon at Adrian Freeman Park
Right up to the death the Mayo Senior Hurling Final hung in the balance. Tooreen were two points up with injury time in extra time almost up. Keith Higgins dropped the ball into the danger area and the sliotar broke loose, a Ballyhaunis hurl pulled on the ball, and it flashed wide of the target. Seconds later the full time whistle blew and Tooreen were champions for the 34th time and claimed four in a row.
Tooreen's greater nous and experience showed in the end with two Fergal Boland points in the second half of injury time key in their victory over their near neighbours, who had battled gamely all day and will count themselves unlucky not to have won the title for the first time since 2020.
Normal time ended in a blaze of drama, deep in injury time Bobby Douglas kept his composure to to drive over a free from his own 65 to put Tooreen into the lead by a single point. But there was still time for Ballyhaunis to to pull it out of the fire, when they were awarded a free out on the stand side - up stepped Cormac Phillips, who hit 11 points from placed balls over the 80 minutes. He took his time and made no mistake to level it up at 0-17 to 1-14, sending the game to extra time.
Ballyhaunis took an early 0-4 to 0-2 lead playing with the aid of a stiff breeze. Tooreen battled back to level the game at five points each midway through the half with Liam Lavin hitting the levelling point. A minute afterwards the Tooreen number 10 finished off a flowing move to net the only goal of the game and put his side two clear.
But far from rattle Ballyhaunis, they reeled off the next five points of the day with Phillips leading the way from frees, before Sean Regan hit a monster score to close the gap to two points at the break and leave it all to play for.
Tooreen had the game all square six minutes into the second half through scores from Lavin and Fergal Boland. Phillips pushed his side back in front before four points on the spin from the Blue Devils including a brace from sub Shane Crinnigan had Ballyhaunis three clear with a quarter of the game to go.
The visitors kept to their task and dragged themselves back into the game with Phillips accuracy from frees keeping them in the contest, until it looked like Douglas had won it before Phillips forced it into extra time.
The extra time action followed the same pattern until the second half which saw Tooreen finally shake off their opponents and claim a hard fought and memorable title for Ray Larkin’s men.
Scorers for Toorreen: Fergal Boland 0-5 (2fs), Liam Lavin 1-3, Sean Regan 0-3, Sean Kenny 0-3 (1f), Bobby Douglas 0-2 (2fs), Shane Boland 0-2 (2fs), Shane Crinnigan 0-2, Eoin Delaney 0-1.
Scorers for Ballyhaunis: Cormac Phillips 0-11 (11fs), Keith Higgins 0-2, Michael Farrell 0-2 (1f), Patrick Kiely 0-2, Adrian Phillips 0-2, James Lyons 0-1, Brian Hunt 0-1, Ryan Kilbane 0-1.
Tooreen: Bobby Douglas; Eoin Delaney, Michael Morley, Oisin Greally; Joe Boyle, Stephen Coyne, David Kenny; Danny Huane, Sean Kenny; Liam Lavin, Kenny Feeney, Sean Regan; Shane Boland, Fergal Boland, James Byrne.
Subs: Jack Trench for Michael Morley, Fionnan Burke for James Byrne, Conor Finn for Eoin Delaney, Oisin Casey for Sean Kenny.
Ballyhaunis: Donal O’Brien; Eoin Ryan, Mark Phillips, Shaun Morley; Diarmuid Phillips, Danny Hill, Eoghan Collins; Kieran McDermott, Brian Hunt; Patrick Kiely, Adrian Phillips, Ryan Kilbane; Michael Farrell, Cormac Phillips, Keith Higgins.
Subs: Stephen Hoban for Ryan Kilbane, Adrian Brennan for Shaun Morley, Luke Cribben for Danny Hill, Sean Griffin for Brian Hunt.
Referee: Mel Kenny (Westport).
