Portaferry retain their title in final thriller

Portaferry retain their title in final thriller

Morgan Fuels Down Senior Hurling Championship Final

Portaferry 0-20

Ballycran 0-16

With Thirty-one minutes played Ballycran’s Michael Hughes looked to be sending this epic encounter to extra time, but within the next four minutes Portaferry knocked over four points to leave Ballycran hopes of regaining the Jeremiah McVeagh cup dashed for another year. Three inspirational points from man of the match Barry Trainor, all in the second half gave the ‘ports the drive for the finish line.

The first half of this final, played under sunny, but cold conditions like last year’s final, was a tight contest with neither team being able to pull away from the other. Portaferry looked to be getting off to a great start as Tom McGrattan, Daithí Sands, Finn Turpin and a Padraig Doran free established a three-point lead after Matt Conlan & Chris Egan had swapped the opening scores inside the first three minutes. Both teams struggled to make any goal chances with Tom Murray Caolan Taggart, Barry Trainor & Ronan Smyth controlling the Portaferry rearguard as Ballycran’s Gerard Hughes, Sean Ennis, James Clarke & Brett Nicholson did likewise.

It was going to take a second half moment of brilliance or an inspirational display to separate these two evenly matched teams, separated by just a point at the break, 0-7 to 0-8 with Phelim Savage nosing Ballycran in front a minute from the short whistle. It was Portaferry’s Barry Trainor who drove forward from half back and from out on the wing landed a brilliant score as they took a one-point lead, as the crowd seemed to lift with excitement. Brett Nicholson replied two minutes later but Portaferry were not going to relinquish their grasp on the trophy that easy, as the lead swung from the ‘crans back to the ‘ports and with time almost up it looked destined to got to extra time until Conor O’Prey, Murray, McGrattan and a third superb Trainor point from have back saw Portaferry retain the title of Senior champions for the first time in over twenty years.

Portaferry: P Smyth, D Mallon, T Murray (0-1), R Smyth, B Trainor (0-3), C Taggart, C Savage, M Conlan (0-2), S Conlan, P Doran (0-2f), F Turpin (0-2), E Sands (0-1), T McGrattan (0-5), N Milligan, D Sands (0-3)

C O’Neill for Mallon, N Fitzsimmons for Doran, C Fay for Milligan, C O’Prey for Savage

Ballycran: S Keith, J Clarke, S Ennis, G Hughes, B Nicholson, L Savage, C McAlister, M Hughes, P Savage (0-3), B Arthurs, C Woods (0-2), P Sheehan (0-5f), S Nicholson (0-1), S Martin (0-4), C Egan (0-1)

N Breen for Ennis, E Bell for S Nicholson, B Watson for Clarke, J Coyle for Egan, A Gleeson for Sheehan