Heaney's bullet swings the day for Galway

MAYO 0-12

THERE’S only one golden rule about a bad match and that’s to win it! While Galway and Mayo huffed and puffed at each other through over 70 minutes of footballing gridlock, one late and very rare segment of attacking brilliance, eventually settled this Connacht championship quarter-final clash.

For any neutrals present at MacHale Park on Sunday, and for the nationwide TV audience, this was seriously tough going with both teams switched onto to a highly defensive mode, minimising anything by way of genuine goalmouth excitement.

That said, Galway won’t be too bothered by the semantics of the occasion as they secured a three-in-a-row of championship successes against their old rivals and more importantly cleared a major gap on the route towards a place in the Super 8s.

There was never going to be anything soft given away in a showdown that was strangled by tension and caution – it really was only in the closing minutes of the match that the leg irons were finally unlocked and both sides decided to have a stab at some genuine attacking.

The goal that eventually decided the match came in the 74th minute and on a day of dullness and deadlock, it was  – by a country mile – the highlight of the match.

Significantly three of Galway’s impressive bunch of subs who came on were involved in the move down the left flank of the Mayo defence, with Adrian Varley, Ian Burke and Seán Kelly producing the deft touches to set up Johnny Heaney for a spectacular finish to the back of David Clarke’s net.

It was by any barometer a wondrous piece of football and maybe a hint that there is an acorn of attacking thrust in Galway that needs to be given a little more by way of fertile soil to thrive and grow.

Full report in this week's Connacht Tribune