Footballers on their guard

Dara Bradley

The Galway senior football management has almost a full panel to pick from as they prepare to face Sligo in the Connacht senior football championship semi-final at Pearse Stadium this Saturday (throw-in, 6pm).

Niall Coleman injured his knee in training last Saturday, and Tuam Stars man Conor Doherty remains unavailable, but Milltown forward Michael Martin and Micheál Breathnach midfielder Fintan Ó Curraoin are both recovered from injury, though probably not fully match fit.

Meanwhile, Galway’s ace marksmen, Pádraig Joyce, Michael Meehan and Seán Armstrong, who played close-on 50 minutes in the Tribesmen’s opening round win over Roscommon, all made it through their club matches over a week ago and are pushing for places in the starting XV, which will be announced after training tonight (Tuesday). 

Galway manager Alan Mulholland and his selectors Alan Flynn and Donal Ó Flatharta are unlikely to tinker too much with the starting line-up that comprehensively overcame Roscommon, 3-15 to 0-10, at Dr Hyde Park last month – despite the intense competition for places, why change a winning formula?

“We’re in a good position, the lads that didn’t play the last day are going well in training, the lads that did start played well, and the lads that came in – we used five substitute – also played well and that’s exactly the position we want to be in – we’ve players to cover every position,” said the team boss.

The reward for a Galway win this weekend is home advantage in the provincial decider, which will almost certainly be against Mayo – they will hardly slip up against Leitrim, who struggled to get a narrow victory against London away on Sunday in the other side of the draw.  

Mulholland said the Roscommon game was probably the best Galway has played since the Salthill man’s reign commenced this season, but there is still room for improvement.

“We were a bit edgy and nervy it being our first championship game so we were relieved to win it. We have a potent full forward line and there’s no secret that we tried to hit them as often as possible, but I’m sure Sligo will have looked at that and will come up with ways of counteracting that. We’ll have to mix it up and vary it a bit for the next day.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.