Galway ladies footballers move one step closer to All-Ireland quarter-final
For the first time since goals from Gillian Joyce and Edel Concannon secured a 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final replay win, Galway beat Meath in the championship and put one foot into July’s All-Ireland quarter-finals.
“The second half was a huge performance from ourselves,” stated manager Daniel Moynihan. “I think in the first half, Nicola in particular was the driving force for us and kept us in the game and showed what we needed to do to break Meath down.
“In that second half, Hannah Noone in particular was one of those who really stood up, and everything seemed to be going right for us. She was winning dirty ball; she was winning clean ball; she was getting up the pitch to give opportunities and also getting her own score later.”
“Delighted with that win,” added Noone.
“It’s been a while since we’ve played so it was hard to know where we stood but we’ve been training really, really hard. The first half, we were a bit slow but that second half was just like a shooting exhibition out there. We played really, really well.”
“It does throw you a little bit,” added the Kilkerrin-Clonberne wing back when asked about the uncertainty before the game. “You have your routine before every match and that was disturbed a bit.”
“We tried to keep the players out of it as much as possible,” continued Moynihan.
“In fairness, Maggie (Farrelly, referee) was very good. She called myself and Wayne (Freeman, Meath manager) together and we just had a conversation.“The key thing for us is that we wanted to get the game played, particularly after travelling all the way up here. We didn’t want to turn around and go home. In fairness to the grounds person, he was running around getting the pitch marked out.”
“The important thing for us is we finish top of this group, get a home quarter-final,” said the Galway manager when asked about their next assignment.“
“They’ve (Tyrone) had a great season so far. Really, really dangerous team and it’s going to be very difficult for us. Since I’ve been playing, we never played against Tyrone,” concluded Noone ahead of Galway’s first meeting with the Red Hands since 2013.
“It’s hard to know what they’ll be like. Hopefully in Tuam, we’re well used to playing there. We’re really looking forward to a new challenge.”