Toomevara hold Ballina at arm's length to book a place in U21A North Hurling decider

North U21A Hurling Championship Semi-Final

Toomevara 0-14

Ballina 0-11

Toomevara booked their place in this year’s U21A North Hurling Championship Final after battling to a deserved win over Ballina in atrocious conditions on the banks of the River Shannon on Sunday afternoon last.

Ballina had the benefit of home advantage after a toss was used to decide who hosted the semi-final clash after the draw early last week, but the boys in blue were always playing catch up to a Toomevara team who always had the home team at arm's length in what was a ragged and attritional contest throughout.

These two clubs clashed at the final stage in the recent U19A championship back in September, and this game had a similar feel to it as the Greyhounds managed to just keep their noses in front all the way through, with Darragh McCarthy’s few moments of quality in play proving the difference yet again in a three-point victory.

And Ballina were certainly more than aware of the threat of young McCarthy and had Jack Collins tag the Toome talisman from the off but it did little to deter the inform All-Ireland minor winner from 2022, as he pointed three of Toome’s first four scores of the game including one from play as they visitors took a 0-4 to 0-2 lead.

Jake Hackett got the scoring underway with a brilliant long-range score, given the conditions, with Ballina settling before long as Matthew Power and Brian Bourke were the scoring forwards in the opening eight minutes.

Toome were getting on top in the first quarter though, and extended their lead to four points with two individually brilliant strikes, first from Kenny Ryan from long range, before Tim Flaherty notched the score of the day on the run after a class first touch. Toome now ahead 0-6 to 0-2 after 14 minutes.

The pitch was quickly deteriorating in the face of the massive deluge of rain that hit the venue though, and it dragged the quality down with it as frees became a common feature from here on in. It was to Ballina’s benefit in the next few minutes as Matthew Power lashed over two frees in a row by the 20th minute.

But McCarthy was proving to hot to handle for his county teammate Jack Collins, with the Toome forward reading a break cleverly in the half-forward line to pick up the pieces and fire over his second from play on the run to put Toome into a three-point lead.

The Toome defence was looking solid in the first half and they were keeping Ballina to frees for the most part, but the home team very nearly struck for a goal in the 21st minute when Brian Bourke was fed a backward ball from a ruck on the Toome 21, and he turned and fired a strong effort at Cormac Hogan who saved smartly with the ball heading for the top corner; Matthew Power converting the resulting 65.

Responding to this, Toome hit the final scores of the half with two placed balls of their own from Darragh McCarthy and deservedly took a 0-9 to 0-5 lead in at the break.

Understandably, with the rain continuing the lash down in Ballina, the second half was far from a nail-biting spectacle as the teams more or less went into a point-for-point contest from placed balls, and this suited Toomevara down to the ground as they had what was a healthy lead considering the conditions.

Darragh McCarthy and Matthew Power traded them throughout the half but the aforementioned Toome free-taker very nearly struck for what would have been a game-winning goal in the 40 minute, picking a long ball out of the sky before bearing down on goal but he just overshot his effort as it sailed over the bar.

Leading 0-12 to 0-8 with 12 to go, Toome looked comfortable at the back thanks in no small part to the sweeping of spare man Jake Hackett who was cleaning up deliveries at will at the heart of the defence, and even hit his second with a monster free in the 49th minute to extend Toome’s lead with Ballina struggling for scores.

They did manage to whittle down the lead to a manageable three-point going into added time, and despite a late Matthew Power free being topped into the Toome square in an effort to score an equaliser, the Toome rearguard held out to claim a place in the North final where they will face a tough test against Roscrea.

Toomevara: Cormac Hogan; Cathal Frend, James Duff, Josh Powell; Cian Ryan, Dan Farrell, Oisin Troy; Kenny Ryan (0-1), Jake Hackett (0-2, 0-1f); Adam Hall, James Meagher, Kieran Boyle; Tim Flaherty (0-1), Darragh McCarthy (0-10, 0-7f), Conor Grace.

Subs used: Eoin Healy for Grace (49); Ted Evans for Duff (52); Joe Coffey for Meagher (58); Jack Doran for Flaherty (62).

Ballina: Simon Grace; David Coughlan, Jack Collins, Billy Collins; Kian Donnelly, Sam Loughran, JP Mbokha; Dara King, Zac Egan; Brian Bourke (0-2), Matthew Power (0-8, 0-7f), Josh Egan; Paddy Bradley (0-1), Cathal O’Donnell, Charlie King.

Subs used: Charlie Grace for Mbokha (53).

Referee: Peter Carroll (Burgess)