Toomevara pass their acid test with confidence with deserved win over Drom & Inch

FBD Insurance Senior Hurling Championship - Group 1 - Round 1

Toomevara 1-24

Drom & Inch 1-19

Toomevara showed savage grit to produce a performance that defeated neighbours Drom & Inch in round two of the FBD Insurance Senior Hurlung Championship and, in the process, continued their interest in this year’s competition.

In the second game in the doubleheader in Borris-Ileigh, Toome came into the game knowing that a loss would end their championship interest for 2024, with Kilruane MacDonagh's win on Friday night over Borris-Ileigh making the fixture very black and white from the North club’s perspective.

But they rose to the challenge with an impressive first-half performance with Adam Hall’s goal in the sixth minute giving them huge momentum from which to propel into a significant half-time lead of ten points as Drom & Inch were cleaned out in their forward division with all of their scores coming from distance.

Darragh McCarthy was once again in fine form as the 19-year-old finished the game with 0-12 (four from play) and didn’t squander any chance at the post all game while the Toomevara back line smothered the Drom & Inch attack throughout; with the second half Drom goal coming from an uncharacteristic mistake from Liam Ryan.

That goal - scored by Maidhc Fitzpatrick - came in the 43rd minute and brought Drom back to within six points of Toomevara in the middle of the half, but they couldn’t muster the scores to truly put the result in doubt with Toome finding the scores at the right time to see themselves over the line.

Jack Delaney set the tone for the first half in the first ten seconds of the game starting when he launched over a fine point from play under pressure; one of three fine first-half points from the forward as Toome looked hungry early doors.

Toome’s early dominance was being converted on the scoreboard with Adam Hall and Mark McCarthy finding the target with class efforts, just before Jack Delaney and Darragh McCarthy linked up to put the aforementioned Hall in on goal to bury to the back of the net; Toome with a 1-4 to 0-2 lead after six minutes.

Drom kept in touch and reduced the arrears to three points in the next ten minutes thanks to David Collins, Cormac Fitzpatrick, and Fintan Purcell points, but Toome took off with three Darragh McCarthy scores (two free) along with points from Robbie Quirke and Jack Delaney gave Toome a deserved and healthy lead of 1-11 to 0-6 points after 23 minutes.

Drom were finding it hard to get any change from the Toomevara defence and found most of their scores from range but they were few and far between late on in the first half as the Greyhounds hit four of the last five points of the half; including a Conor O’Farrell point that was brilliantly set up by a crossfield Mark McCarthy sideline cut. All Toome to that point as the scoreboard read 1-15 to 0-8 at half-time.

Toome kept tipping over their scores to uphold their advantage in the first ten minutes of the restart with brother Darragh and Kevin McCarthy hitting four points between them in that time, but Drom hit their purple patch with Johnny Ryan making an impact from the bench with two early points before Tommy Nolan made the most of the Liam Ryan blunder in the 43rd minute to square a handpass to Maidhc Fitzpatrick to finish unmolested from close range. 

That left the score at 1-19 to 1-13 and Drom had even dragged the game back to a four-point deficit by the 56th minute and even turned down an easy free to try find a major; Callanan hitting a short free to Tommy Nolan who went for goal but was denied by juggling saved from Rory Brislane who just about scampered back to his line after half-blocking the shot to clear the danger.

In essence, that was the winning of the game for Toome with Jake Hackett making his usual impact off the bench with the next score to settle the nerves, and with late scores from Conor O’Farrell and Darragh McCarthy, Toome prolonged their season for at least another game ahead of a round three clash with Kilruane MacDonaghs.

Drom will now be in survival mode in their final game as they face a mouthwatering tie with arch-rivals Borris-Ileigh in two weeks and will need a significant win to get out of the group.

Toomevara: Rory Brislane; Liam Ryan, Andrew Ryan, Seamus O’Farrell; Josh McCarthy, Barry O’Connell, Jack Ryan; Robbie Quirke (0-1), Conor O’Farrell (0-3); Jack Delaney (0-3), Darren Delaney, Mark McCarthy (0-2); Darragh McCarthy (0-12, 0-7f, 0-1 65), Kevin McCarthy (0-1), Adam Hall (1-1).

Subs used: Jake Hackett (0-1) for M McCarthy (47); Shane Nolan for K McCarthy (53); Josh Powell for S O’Farrell (54); Colm Canning for Hall (58); David Nolan for D Delaney (61).

Drom & Inch: Eoin Collins; Michael Campion, Jamie Moloney, Lorcan Campion; Podge Campion (0-2), Fintan Purcell (0-2), Jack Ryan (0-1); John Campion, Maidhc Fitzpatrick (1-2); David Collins (0-2), David Butler, Tony Cahill (0-1); Tommy Nolan, Seamus Callanan (0-5f), Cormac Fitzpatrick (0-2).

Subs used: Stevie Nolan for T Cahill (HT); Johnny Ryan (0-2) for M Campion (HT); Cormac Cahill for Butler (50).

Referee: Michael Kennedy (Newcastle)