Leech double crucial as Turin claim victory over Castletown

Turin 3-21, Castletown Geoghegan 1-23

By Darragh Fallon

In perfect conditions on Saturday evening in Killucan, the deadly duo of Conor Heffernan and Sean Leech turned in superb performances to down the black and amber men from Castletown Geoghegan.

In the opening minute, Conor Heffernan pointed from a free from a central position to get the scoreboard moving. Again a minute later, Heffernan was deadly from the placed ball before Castletown got into their rhythm with a fine Neal Kirby score from over on the right. Cormac Jackson was to level the game in the fourth minute with another fine score from play before Ciaran Kiernan nudged Turin in front again with a lovely score from play.

Castletown Geoghegan were to get on top over the next five minutes with another Neal Kirby score from play followed by two Adam Cassidy scores also from play. Turin were down by two points in the 10th minute but were to put on their own scoring burst to get them in front. A Conor Heffernan free from outside the 21 was buried to the net and they had found a recipe for danger when targeting Sean Leech. Seconds after Heffernans goal, Turin hit the back of the net again with Sean Leech claiming a huge catch, turn and lashed the ball home.

Leech followed this up with another point from play a minute later and in the 13th minute Turin were to stretch their lead further with a Heffernan free following a foul on Leech. Adam Cassidy steadied the Castletown team with a free from close in after 15 minutes which was followed a minute later with another Heffernan free for Turin. Adam Cassidy and Ciaran Kiernan traded points from play in the following minutes before Castletown exerted a lot of pressure in the final 10 minutes of the half. Adam Cassidy, Dean Slevin (x2) and Neal Kirby all pointed from play in a 4 minute scoring burst before Sean Leech responded with a score from play of his own. Brian Aughey and Sean Clarke then traded points from play to bring the first half to a close with Turin leading, 2-9 to 0-12.

In a similar start to the first half, Turin were first out of the blocks with a Conor Heffernan free following overcarrying from Castletown. In the fifth minute of the second half O’Brien and O’Neill both scored from play for each side before Heffernan added a fine point from play reacting quickest to a breaking ball. Adam Cassidy almost broke through for a Castletown Geoghegan goal chance moments later, but had to settle for a point.

In the ninth minute of the second half Sean Leech was again to have a massive impact on the game. Another route one ball in to Leech rebounded into his grasp and the full forward fired home for his second goal of the game. Cormac Jackson responded a minute later, however Castletown were in trouble with Turin managing the game well. Another Heffernan free followed by two more fine scores from play from Sean Leech were to follow before we entered the final 15 minutes. Castletown rallied with an Adam Cassidy 65' and further scores from play from Killian Jackson and Dean Slevin gave them hope.

Brian Aughey and Conor Heffernan followed with two scores from play for Turin before the Castletown substitute Aaron Jackson found the net with nine minutes remaining.

Slevin, with two scores from play either side of another Sean Leech score, left Castletown with a glimmer of hope, but time was not on their side. Two more Heffernan frees were followed by another score from Kirby, a great run and strike which rose over the bar.

With 28 minutes on the clock the game had its only real flashpoint with a heavy challenge from Peter Finch resulting in a straight red card from Jim Bob Baker. Cassidy scored the resulting free which was followed by another pass from Leech to Heffernan and the latter notched another from play. Cormac Jackson finished up the Castletown scoring in injury-time and Conor Heffernan fittingly provided another from play to close out the game, making it 3-21 to 1-23.

Scorers – Turin – C Heffernan 1-12 (1-8 fr), S Leech 2-5, C Kiernan, 0-2, PJ O’Neill 0-1, B Aughey 0-1.

CTG – A Cassidy 0-8 (0-2 fr, 0-1 65), D Slevin 0-5, N Kirby 0-4, C Jackson 0-3, A Jackson 1-0, F O’Brien 0-1, K Jackson 0-1, S Clarke 0-1.

Turin: Eoin Aughey, Sean Scally, Craig Neville, Peter Finch, Declan McGrath, Darragh Smith, Derek Hourihane, Jack Geoghegan, Ciaran Kiernan, PJ O’Neill, Oisin Lestrange, Conor Heffernan, Ray Aughey, Sean Leech, Brian Aughey. Sub used: Kylan Heffernan for PJ O’Neill.

Castletown Geoghegan: Eoin Glennon, Conor Maloney, Peter Dalton, Paul O’Sullivan, Fergal O’Brien, Ryan Boyne, Killian Jackson, Eoin Carey, Sean Clarke, Cormac Jackson, Conall Fagan, Rory Quinn, Adam Cassidy, Neal Kirby, Dean Slevin. Subs used: Aaron Jackson for Conall Fagan, Oisin McCabe for Peter Dalton.

Referee: Jim Bob Baker (Cullion).