Carey and Aughey goals keep Turin on course

Turin 2-15, Southern Gaels 1-14

Paul Hughes

Turin remain on course to make a long-awaited championship breakthrough after they registered a convincing win against Southern Gaels in The Downs on Saturday evening, maintaining their 100 percent record in this year’s IHC.

The men in red led 1-9 to 0-7 at the break, with Khassim Carey following up an early goal with two exquisite points before the whistle, and their opponents heavily reliant on freetaker Sean Dowd for scores.

To their credit, Southern Gaels breathed life into a dull and often rain-swept second half, getting within two points of parity. But the winners had the better hurlers on the day, including man of the match Darragh Smith, whose wonderful point with two minutes to go broke the Gaels’ momentum, and a late goal from veteran Ray Aughey settled the affair.

With this blend of experience and raw young talent, Turin are on the cusp of something special. Arguably their toughest test of the group stage awaits against second-placed Castletown Geoghegan, who have their own sights set on the Adrian Murray Cup. But after 30 years of hurt, there’s a real momentum about Turin that will be hard to stop.

The Reds opened the scoring with points from Sean Leech (a free) and Ciaran Kiernan, and on four minutes, a low-trajectory shot from Khassim Carey evaded Southern Gaels netminder Jonathan Keogh and ended up in the net. That blistering start gave Turin a lead they would never relinquish.

The Athlone men had the best of the ensuing ten minutes, reducing the deficit to a single point after four dead-ball efforts from Sean Dowd, including a superb long-range free and a ‘65’, the latter coming about after Sean Murphy had a low shot saved by Turin ‘keeper Eoin Aughey.

Not for the first time in the game, industrious Turin wing back Darragh Smith took the wind out of the Gaels’ sails with a magnificent long-range score, while Leech tacked on another free to widen the gap.

Murphy responded with a point for the Southerners, dividing the posts after a distant free from Sean Dowd struck the upright. Moments later, they had another shout for a green flag when Seamus Hoctor fizzed a low shot across the face of goal, but Chulainn Dowd failed to connect on the line.

The Gaels rued this miss all the more in the ensuing minute as Sean Leech pointed for Turin on the counter, and at the other end, Eamon Martin went short with a point attempt.

On 23 minutes, the Athlone men got a lift when Chulainn Dowd found his range with an inch-perfect puck from the right wing, while a free from Sean Dowd cancelled out a similar effort from Leech. With five minutes to go in the half, Southern Gaels trailed by only two points.

However, Turin found their groove again, with Khassim Carey delivering two very similar and excellent scores on the turn inside the 29th minute. Carey was fouled in stoppage time and Leech obliged with another free, giving the men in red a five-point cushion at the break.

Amid a downpour, the Gaels emerged with a pep in their step and Sean Murphy opened the scoring with a point from a tight angle, but a brace of frees from Ray Aughey gave Turin a six-point lead (1-11 to 0-8) by the 42nd minute.

Southern Gaels then hit a ten-minute purple patch during which they outscored their opponents 0-6 to 0-2. Frees from Sean Dowd (2) and Cian Geary (a terrific long-range effort) were answered by a point from Turin’s Declan McGrath, before Johnny and Eamon Martin posted two wonderful scores from play for the Gaels to reduce the arrears to just two points.

By now the rain had eased off and as the quality of hurling improved, Darragh Smith replied with free from distance for Turin. But when Eamon Martin fired a tremendous score from the right wing for Southern Gaels on 54 minutes, it felt like Tony O’Keeffe’s troops were in with a shout for the points.

However, Turin had other ideas and after the sides exchanged wides, Smith, from out on the right flank, popped up with another majestic score from distance.

Alan Aughey was the Reds’ only sub and proved an inspired one, pointing off the upright to put four between the sides on 59 minutes and then, three minutes into stoppage time, teeing up his brother Ray to smash to the net, guaranteeing a Turin win.

Southern Gaels battled hard for a consolation goal, and while both Diarmuid Martin and Sean Murphy (on the rebound) both had efforts blocked, sub Dean Burns found the net five minutes into time added on after collecting a deflected ‘65’ from Sean Dowd.

Scorers - Turin: R Aughey (0-2f) and K Carey 1-2 each, S Leech 0-5 (4f), D Smith 0-3 (1f), C Kiernan, Declan McGrath and A Aughey 0-1 each. Southern Gaels: S Dowd 0-7 (6f, 1 ‘65’), D Burns 1-0, S Murphy and E Martin 0-2 each, C Dowd, C Geary (free) and J Martin 0-1 each.

Turin: Eoin Aughey; Seán Scally, Luke Gardiner, Peter Finch; Darragh Smith, Danny McGrath, Craig Neville; Ciaran Kiernan, Declan McGrath; Sean Leech, Oisín L’Estrange, PJ O’Neill; Conor Leech, Khassim Carey, Ray Aughey. Subs used: Alan Aughey for Carey (50).

Southern Gaels: Jonathan Keogh; Graham Houlihan, Diarmaid Murtagh, Cian McCarthy; Dermot Treacy, Diarmuid Martin, Cian Geary; Sean Dowd, Jamie Anders; Chulainn Dowd, John Martin, Eamon Martin; Seamus Hoctor, Sean Murphy, MJ Kelly. Subs used: Dean Burns for Hoctor (43), Sean O’Donoghue for C Dowd (45), Luke Whelan for Anders (50), Neal Rattigan for Kelly (54).

Ref: Ray Farrelly (Lough Lene Gaels).