Galway set for Orchard raid in football qualifiers
Galway’s away draw to Armagh in the football championship qualifiers will ‘tell us where we are’ in terms of the progress made this year, according to manager Kevin Walsh.
The Killanin clubman said that while all of the eight managers were obviously hoping for home advantage in the draw, Galway would know where they stand after the Armagh match.
Walsh will have to plan without the services of Kilkerrin-Clonberne forward Shane Walsh, out of action due to a hand injury for another three to four weeks after last month’s road accident near Tuam.
“It will be at least another three to four weeks before Shane is back – he is a big loss to us but at this stage it appears as if everyone else is okay,” said Walsh.
One of his major tasks since the Connacht semi-final defeat to Mayo is in recharging the batteries in terms of motivation for the qualifiers.
“The biggest challenge for all teams in the qualifiers is to recreate the will, desire and motivation that’s there automatically for the earlier championship matches.
“Armagh do have one qualifier under their belts already and that will be a help to them but this is a very good test for us and from now on, you will be meeting quality teams,” said Walsh.
He said that while Galway had made mistakes against Mayo, there were also a lot of positives to be taken from the match, in terms of the commitment and effort put in.
“We did have two wins in our last two games with Armagh but they were home venues for us. It is difficult to go north and win in their own backyard but that’s the challenge we face – it really is a big game for us,” said Walsh.
While Galway will respect Armagh – and especially so on their home turf – they certainly won’t fear them after beating the northern side last year in the league at Tuam Stadium (2-14 to 1-13) and the previous year in the qualifiers in Pearse Stadium (1-11 to 1-9).
Armagh – a bit like Galway and Down – have patchy form over recent years and last month they suffered a heavy defeat (2-11 to 0-8) at the hands of a Donegal side harbouring serious All-Ireland ambitions.
This was probably as close as it gets to a humiliation for Ciaran McGeeney’s side as the match was effectively over at half-time when Donegal led by 1-9 to 0-2.
Time, though, will have been a help to Armagh in their efforts to salvage something from their season and although they had their moments of worry against Wicklow in round 1B of the qualifiers, it was still a decisive win in the end (2-17 to 2-7).
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.