A sad end to the year for sorry footballers

Galway 0-13Wexford 1-11

Dara Bradley

GALWAY’S end of season report card makes for grim reading. Scraped by New York, lucky to get a replay against Sligo, beaten in the replay by Sligo and now this – dumped out of the qualifiers by Wexford, a brave yet average enough looking third division outfit.  

You’d like to think the only way is up for Galway football after such a shambles of a season but you couldn’t be too sure and it’s difficult to see any glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

The early Saturday afternoon kick-off, the teaming rain in Salthill and the paltry crowd of just 2,330 (a large chunk of whom were from Wexford) at a bare-looking Pearse Stadium was gloomy in itself, but the manner in which Galway lost this qualifier was enough to bring on a bout of full blown depression.

For the second weekend in a row, Galway entered injury-time leading by a point and ended up losing. To do it once is unfortunate but twice, within a week, is just careless.

What makes it all the more galling is Galway should never have been in the situation where they could be caught by a late Wexford surge. The Tribesmen had enough possession and ample chances to close out this qualifier earlier on but some questionable decisions from referee Jimmy White – although he hardly deserved being booed off the field by the home support  – coupled with sloppy  mistakes, wayward shooting and poor shot selection ultimately thwarted Joe Kernan’s men.

In fairness to the players, you couldn’t fault their commitment or effort in miserable conditions but too often Galway gave away possession so cheaply in the closing stages when cool heads – and perhaps a bit of cynicism of slowing the game down – were needed to eke out a dirty win.

Just on the stroke of full-time, Galway legend Padraic Joyce showed true match-winning leadership to gather possession back in their own half-back line, soloed run up the field and drew a foul just outside Wexford’s ‘45.

Galway needed more of the Killererin man’s courage when the winning line was in sight but it doesn’t say much about the character of a team when you are totally relying on a 33-year-old to rescue you.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.