Castlegar 1-17
Gort 2-12

Castlegar, Galway's most successful hurling club with 17 county championships, are back in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in 20 years.

It remains to be seen if Castlegar can go all the way and end a title famine that goes back to 1984, but they finally put their quarter-final hoodoo to rest at Kenny Park, Athenry, on Saturday. Joe Connolly, the Galway All-Ireland winning captain of 1980, is currently the club chairman and knows the value of this hard-earned win.

"We reckon we have lost 12 or 13 quarter-finals in the past 20 years so this is a big step forward. Nobody will get carried away but this is a step forward," he said.

Castlegar, trained by new Clare football boss Frank Doherty, did it the hard way, allowing Gort to get back into the game on a number of occasions.

With Ger Farragher, who finished with 0-10, in top form, and Kevin Brady superb in defence, Castlegar led by 0-7 to 0-3 after 22 minutes and seemed poised to cut loose.

But it took a Farragher free to draw them 0-9 to 1-6 level at the break after Paul Killilea got the first his two goals and the impresive Aidan Harte also found the range.

Castlegar again pulled away in the second-half with a Cathal Connolly goal after 26 seconds helping them to a 1-13 to 1-8 lead at the end of the third quarter.

But Gort rallied once more and Killilea's second goal and a couple of more frees from Gerry Quinn saw them level with 13 minutes left.

However, Castlegar were not going to be denied this time and they held out although Killilea almost snatched victory in stoppage time for Gort but he was narrowly off target after Castlegar goalkeeper Terence Grogan had earlier deprived Martin Nestor with a superb save.

Castlegar: T Grogan; K Brady, A Connolly, P Connell; B Connolly, T Mannion, P O'Flynn; M Culinane, D Barry (0-1); G Farragher (0-10, six frees, two sidelines), R O'Flynn (0-2), E Concannon; C Connolly (1-3), C Burke, D O'Gorman (0-1).
Subs: N Burke for Mannion, half-time; D Geraghty for Concannon, 49 mins;

Gort: P Cummins; G Nolan, T Linnane, M McMahon; D Linnane, E Linnane, A Coen; S Forde, N Forde; P Killilea (2-0), G Quinn (0-6, four frees, one 65), A Harte (0-2); M Nestor (0-3), O Fahy (0-1), S Linnane.
Subs: G Lally for D Linnane, 35 mins; K Killilea for S Linnane, 43 mins; J Kearns for Fahy, 56 mins.

Referee: M Bindon.

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