Steely St Thomas' edge dramatic replay against Loughrea to seal five-in-a-row in Galway

Loughrea 0-17 St Thomas' 1-15

St. Thomas' are five-in-a-row champions in Galway after this afternoon’s incredibly tense and dramatic senior hurling final replay ultimately turned on a couple of key moments in the latter stages.

In a contest where there was two points or less between the sides for all bar 30 seconds in the first half, it looked like the younger and livelier Loughrea side might just be poised to finally make their breakthrough and bridge their 16-year championship drought when a superb score from Darren Shaughnessy edged them 0-16 to 1-12 in front with seven minutes remaining.

Composure under pressure was to prove the decisive factor however as Conor Cooney nailed two long-range pressure frees and Éanna Burke completed a run of three vital points on the spin in the 59th minute, asking incredibly tough questions of the town club.

Galway senior panellist Tiernan Killeen stepped up to the mark with an accurate finish from out on the left wing, but while the underdogs created three other decent chances to equalise, albeit all struck from 60 metres out or more, they were wide of the mark on all three occasions, with Neil Keary pushing both a free and a strike from the right side of midfield wide of the left-hand upright.

That finish was somewhat appropriate for the game as a whole, where Loughrea were that little bit more sharp and explosive, but where St. Thomas’ game management kept them in touch. Nowhere was this more evident than in the deployment of Mark Caulfield up forward, initially at centre forward but alternating between there, wing forward and full forward.

After Loughrea burst out of the blocks to lead by 0-04 to 0-02 after five minutes, with Jamie Ryan and Joe Mooney striking highlight reel points,