Youthful Galway take step in right direction

GALWAY 1-15DERRY 0-15

FRANK FARRAGHER

A small step in the right direction, nothing more or nothing less, as Galway mixed the good with the bad to grind out an important Division 2 league success against an equally inconsistent Derry side before a disappointingly small crowd of barely 1,200 people at Pearse Stadium on Sunday.

For all its veins of imperfection, this was still a critical victory for a young Galway side desperately trying to lay a few foundation stones in the house of confidence, and in their better periods of the match – mostly in the first half – Alan Mulholland’s charges did put together some decent passages of play.

Galway started the match with a refreshing vibrancy leading at half-time by 0-8 to 0-4 and that advantage could at least have been doubled with a bit more sharpness up front, but worryingly – in a trend that has replicated itelf over the past year or so – there was a quite dramatic fade out period in the second half when Derry dominated most phases of the game.

Not a Galway supporter in the faithful that gathered in Salthill will be blowing any trumpets about the year ahead based on this performance – that’s not pessimism, just realism – but if the side could string a few wins together, then some of the young seeds planted over the past year or so could begin to germinate.

Derry, under Brian McIver, are also starting out on a rebuilding programme with a lot of young players getting their chance, and for the first 35 minutes of this match, they really struggled to stay in touch with Galway, but a bit like the Ireland-Wales rugby match on Saturday, all was to change in the second half.

Three minutes after the interval, when Galway struck for the only goal of the game via the fist of Michael Meehan, after a Michael Martin punched effort had come off the bar, Derry were behind by 1-8 to 0-5 and were also playing into the sea breeze. It looked a doomed cause for the men from the North.

However over the course of the following 16 minutes, Galway only added one more point via the boot of Michael Meehan, as Derry established a clear possession stranglehold around the midfield sector while Eoin Bradley gave Finian Hanley and the home defence a torrid time.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.