Longford Slashers complete county hurling championship clean sweep

Longford Slashers achieved a clean sweep of county hurling titles on Saturday night after a dominant second half display secured the Under 21 Hurling crown at Michael Fay Park, to add to the senior, under 18, under 16, and under 14 championships already won this year.

Longford Slashers . . . 3-16  Wolfe Tones Mostrim . . . 0-8 

Although only leading at half-time by a point, 1-3 to 0-5, Slashers eventually ran out winners by 3-16 to 0-8, with Sean Tiernan raising the green flag in the first half and Matthew Hawes rattling the Wolfe Tones net twice in the second half.

Daniel Gallagher opened the scoring for the winners before Shane Fahy twice and Liam Browne responded with frees for the Edgeworthstown side to put them up by three points to one before the quarter-hour mark.

Matthew Hawes for Slashers and Killian Courtney for Wolfe Tones then exchanged points within a minute of each other as the East Longford men maintained their two-point advantage.

Slashers first goal arrived in the twenty-sixth minute and it was a brilliant team goal. The sliotar came to Hawes and he played a superb ball into Gary Hand who quickly transferred possession to Tiernan and he blasted his shot to the net from about twenty metres out to give Slashers the lead.

Daniel Gallagher with a free increased the lead to two points before Caolan Hussey registered the last score of the half for Wolfe Tones to leave just the minimum between the sides.

Slashers ran riot in the second half outscoring Wolfe Tones by 2-13 to 0-03 to win the contest by seventeen points.

Goalkeeper Adam Murray fired over four brilliantly pointed frees for Slashers with Ronan Courtney responding for Wolfe Tones.

The game was effectively over as a contest after a glorious four-minute scoring spree for Slashers between the forty-third and forty-sixth minutes.

They went seven points clear when they bagged their second goal. A Gallagher shot crashed against the Wolfe Tones crossbar and Hawes reacted quickest to fire home the rebound.

Two minutes later, Sean Tiernan slotted over a free and he followed up with an excellent point from play from way out on the left just a minute later.

The third goal came in the forty-sixth minute when Hawes went on a brilliant run, cutting in from the left before directing a rasping shot to the back of the net and in the same minute Darragh Caslin added another point for the rampant Sky Blues.

That unanswered 2-3 put Slashers up by 3-10 to 0-06 to end the game as a contest.

Adam Murray scored his fifth point from a sixty-five, Harry Mulvihill scored a point, and the impressive substitute Oisin McHugh raised three white flags before Darragh Caslin added Slashers last point in stoppage time.

Wolfe Tones just scored two more points in the second half courtesy of Killian Courtney on fifty-one minutes and substitute Cormac Harte in stoppage time.

LONGFORD SLASHERS: Adam Murray (0-5, 5 frees);  Mark Farrell, Stephen Oates, Darryl Swaris; Ronan Kelly, Diarmuid Caslin, Finn Neary, Jack Horgan Swaris, Harry Mulvihill (0-1); Sean Tiernan (1-2, 1 free), Darragh Caslin (0-2), Gary Hand; Gavin Nulty, Daniel Gallagher (0-2, 1 free), Matthew Hawes (2-1).

Subs:- Oisin McHugh (0-3) for G Nulty, Adam Dunworth for M Farrell, Olan Bracken for F Neary, Billy Maguire for G Hand.

WOLFE TONES: Finn O’Neill; Ciaran McEvoy, Ciaran McNally, Ronan Collum; Eoghan Noonan, Shane Fahy (0-2, 2 frees), Padraig Cahill; James Connell, Jack Belton; Caolan Hussey (0-1), Ronan Courtney (0-1), Ali Iqbal; Liam Browne (0-1, free), Thomas Finn, Killian Courtney (0-2).

Subs:- Ciaran Browne for E Noonan, Sean Stakem for C McEvoy, Cormac Harte (0-1) for C Hussey.

Referee: Larry Tiernan (Roscommon).