Galway quick to finish job

 IT was all over after 20 minutes. A devastating opening period of fast, open and attractive football by the Tribesmen burst Roscommon’s bubble at Hyde Park on Sunday; there really was no way back from 2-6 to 0-2 down, regardless of the 50 minutes remaining on the clock.

Galway fell asleep for the middle chunk of the first round Connacht championship match, Roscommon rallied a bit, but once the cool heads of Padraic Joyce and Michael Meehan – both received a rapturous reception, particularly the Caltra man who has been cursed with injuries for the past three years – entered the fray, the Tribesmen sealed the deal in some style.

“No, we’re going to get totally carried away now,” quipped manager Alan Mulholland sarcastically in the wake of the 14 points, 3-15 to 0-10, victory when it was suggested Galway will have to keep their feet firmly on the ground, given the inadequacy of their opponents.

Roscommon were poor, very poor. The usual hostile reception reserved for the maroon and white jersey at Hyde Park never materialised.

The atmosphere among the home support was muted, nervy even. The attitude of the team was the same: The Rossies were a yard or two off the pace of the game from the throw-in and paid the ultimate price for failing miserably to match Galway’s high intensity.

The Roscommon players were subdued, the in-your-face doggedness and tight, aggressive marking wasn’t there; and Galway took full advantage of the spaces. Galway just blitzed the home team, with man-of the match Paul Conroy and Mark Hehir netting early.

“Every team tries to start well. How or what did we do to start well? I don’t know but I just know that this team is sick of being beaten, particularly by a point. That’s been the case in the last two or three years, we’ve lost important games by a point. One way to eradicate that is to be more than a point ahead with a few minutes to go and it’s great that we had that cushion towards the end,” said Mulholland.

Whereas Roscommon were poor in every department, you couldn’t find much to fault with Mulholland’s charges. The full-back line, with championship debutants Kieran McGrath and Keith Kelly in the corners, was the area identified beforehand as possibly being a weak link but it performed solidly, backboned by captain Finian Hanley who led by example, against a high profile attack that included Senan Kilbride and Donie Shine, who admittedly didn’t perform to their standards on the day.

Apart from a few worrying moments when Cathal Cregg made some threatening runs, centre-back Johnny Duane was a rock while Gareth Bradshaw and Gary O’Donnell did all that was asked of them defensively and offered a real threat going forward, too.

The early injury to Michael Finneran was a blow to Roscommon but that can’t take away from Joe Bergin’s towering performance at centre-field, one of the Mountbellew/Moylough man’s best displays for his county in the championship in a few years.

Gary Sice was menacing at wing-forward, chipping in with 1-3, and Paul Conroy, the St James’ clubman, was in absolutely devastating form. The city man used his physicality to dominate the aerial battled on the edge of the square where he had full-back Niall Carty in all sorts of bother. His goal, after claiming a long-ball from club mate Duane, was pure class – his nose for the net was instinctive, and it’s a shame you couldn’t bottle it.

All in all it was great to see Galway back playing with a bit of flair and passion. Galway badly needed this win, to boost morale among the supporters and to restore some confidence to the players as well.

But Mulholland acknowledged afterwards, it’s only one win and Sligo, managed by former Galway footballer, Kevin Walsh, in the semi-final on Saturday, June 9, at Pearse Stadium, offers a tougher test.

“We know Kevin (Walsh) is waiting in the wings with Sligo. Kevin knows Galway football better than I know Galway football, probably, so it’s going to be hell for leather against them and we’re going to have it all to do to beat Sligo the next day but, look, we’re going to draw confidence from this. We’re not going to say ‘look, we have to pretend that we didn’t play well’, it was fantastic to play well and hopefully we build on that and play better the next day – that’s the challenge,” he said.

For a full match report and photos see pages 30 & 31 of this week’s Sentinel