Galway finish in blaze of glory to secure the spoils

Dublin 1-14

THE opening round of the Leinster minor hurling championship had proven an eye opener for Galway, but they put those lessons to good use when finishing in a blaze of glory to overcome Dublin at Parnell Park on Saturday.

A little wiser, a little sharper, more tuned-in and displaying a mighty work ethic – typified by midfielder Seán Moran – the boys in maroon came through a thrilling second-half to partially banish the memory of their heavy loss to Kilkenny the previous weekend.

But Galway had to get back on the horse the hard way. A gallant Dublin outfit asked serious questions of them at different stages of this lively round-robin fixture, notably when edging in front in the 57th minute after being four points adrift early in the final quarter.

Up to that juncture, Galway had been doing most things right, but they were still prone to being turned over in possession and a match haul of 14 wides is also something to be worked on ahead of their next outing away to Wexford on Saturday (1:30pm).

When a fine score from Dublin’s James Norris put the hosts 1-13 to 1-12 in front with just three minutes of normal time remaining, you’d imagine that Galway would have settled for a draw, but they were more ambitious than that and a late haul of 1-4 saw Kenneth Burke’s charges achieve a rousing victory.

Central to Galway’s late surge was Brian Callanan, whose bustling aggression makes him a difficult opponent to handle. The Ardrahan teenager landed a second free, scored the match-winning goal and also sent over a quality effort from play to steer his team home.

An excellent long-range point from centre back Jonah Donnellan had kick-started Galway’s late fireworks in a second-half which produced bouts of quality hurling. The opening 30 minutes was a slow burner, however, as the teams shared nearly as many wides (13) as scores (14).

Pictured: Galway attacker Brian Callanan aiming for the Dublin posts during Saturday's Leinster Minor Hurling championship round-robin tie at Parnell Park.