Defiant footballers lift gloom

Galway 1-15Tyrone 0-14

by Declan Tierney

WHEN tough guy Arnold Schwarzenegger made his famous quote about strengths and where they come from, he could well have been referring to the current situation with Galway football which has now become a mishmash of incredible lows tempered by relative highs. 

“Strength does not come from winning”, he said. “Your struggles develop your strength.” This is certainly appropriate when it comes to Galway football’s indifferent season which took yet another twist on Sunday against Tyrone at Tuam Stadium when they dug incredibly deep to keep Mickey Harte’s side at arm’s length.

Galway struggled against Mayo, Cork and Kerry in the league so far and yet have produced some morale building performances. There is no doubt that this current Galway team will struggle again before the league campaign is through, but yet they have provided their supporters with some much needed comfort.

It was a win that was a combination of Galway’s spirit and Tyrone’s inability to sustain any momentum. Tyrone have now lost four of their five league games and it was easy to see how this could have happened.

They now play a shorter passing game than before – even with a wind at their backs – and could not capitalise on Galway’s barren spell early in the second half when the home side went scoreless for an incredible 16 minutes.

But from a Galway perspective, the manner in which they steadied the ship and then went on to put the game beyond Tyrone’s grasp spoke a lot about the character of this much maligned side who, like Tyrone, came into the game with a number of injuries up front.

This aside, Galway showed tremendous battling qualities and particularly in the first half when they played into a strong breeze and there were times when they spent long periods pressurizing the Tyrone goal when, realistically, much of the action should have been at the other end.

A Matthew Clancy goal after four minutes significantly proved one of Galway’s most important score as it was the one which Tyrone could not overcome as it proved to be the difference between the sides for much of the match.

Indeed this was Clancy’s – a kind of veteran at this stage of his football career – best days for Galway in recent years even if he had a quieter second half, but there was no disputing Joe Bergin’s influence and his movement to around the centre of the field was one of the reasons why Galway held out.

It is no secret that Bergin would prefer to play up front for Galway – and his two magnificent points from play were testament to this – but when it came to winning ball around the middle of the field, he proved to be the home side’s only answer in this regard.

One of the incredible statistics about this game is that Galway won it without coming anywhere near to winning the midfield exchanges. In fact, it was Bergin who won the only clean possession in this area throughout the whole match.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.