FootballersÕ resilience helps them grind out win

GALWAY 3-11LONGFORD 3-7

A strange encounter that regularly meandered into bizarre country, but at the end of a rollercoaster game in Pearse Park on Sunday, Galway had secured the two points that steers them into the business end of the Division 2 league table.

This match was no thing of beauty with the impressive-enough score tallies reflecting some shocking instances of defensive brittleness rather than any attacking brilliance, but as always, the only consolation to be secured from a patchy game is victory . . . we all remember that from the year of ‘83!

Taken at face value so far in the league, there seems to be a huge chasm emerging between the Division 1 teams and those in the lower three tiers – Galway are still finding it tough going to establish themselves as being a cut above the rest against the Longfords and Westmeaths of this world.

Galway are struggling to find the core of quality players that would give them defensive stability, a decent depth of midfield options and a more free-scoring attack, but they did show an encouraging level of resilience to turn around a second half scenario of impending doom. 

Mind you, Galway were helped immeasurably by the ‘decency’ of the Longford defence in gifting them two goals in the last 14 minutes – each of them in the easily preventable category – but for all that, both neatly finished by hand to the net, thanks to the persistence of Eoin Concannon and Paul Conroy.

In a pattern that has been replicated through the league, and indeed for most of last year as well, Galway did produce some flowing passages of football, most notably in the run-up to half-time, but when Longford struck for two early second half goals, the sighs were palpable from the small band of maroon supporters present.

The combination of a biting Siberian wind and Mother’s Day ‘devotions’ kept the crowd down to about the 800 mark but the home fans felt more than a little bit of warmth from within, after the first 10 minutes of the second half, when Sean McCormack twice soloed unhindered inside the Galway defence before burying two unstoppable shots to the back of John Egan’s net.

Both scores, though, were the result of quite shocking possession giveaways by Galway players – playing short balls across the defensive line with no cover in place is the stuff of footballing innocence and when Longford powered into a 3-6 to 1-8 lead after a Donal McElligott point in the 45th minute, the signs looked ominous for Alan Mulholland’s charges.

This was now real backs-to-the-wall stuff for Galway with Fionntáin Ó Curraoin, Sean Armstrong and Keith Kelly being introduced for Anthony Griffin, Micheál Boyle and Gareth Bradshaw, but in the 57th minute, a very unexpected break brought the winners right back into the game.

Michael Martin’s right footed point effort dropped short across the face of the Longford posts but when ‘keeper Damien Sheridan hesitated in ‘attacking’ the ball, Concannon showed an admirable striker’s instinct to flick to the back of the net.

Quite unexpectedly, Galway were now only one behind at 3-6 to 2-8 and when Niall Coleman levelled the match with a well-struck point, the late momentum seemed to be very much with the visitors but the livewire Sean McCormack levelled again for Longford.

A well taken point from the accurate Martin left the match deadlocked again with less than 10 minutes remaining but when Finian Hanley picked the ball off the ground 30 metres from his own goal, Galway looked to be in trouble, but for once, ace Longford marksman Sean McCormack missed the target.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.