Slick Galway men hand out thrashing to hapless Antrim

Antrim  1-13

GALWAY hurlers took no chances for their marathon trek to Belfast on Sunday, and they reaped the reward with a 25-point demolition of hapless Antrim in this hopelessly one-sided Division 1B league encounter.

As it transpired, the Galway players could have gone clubbing the night before, travelled up on the morning of the game and feasted on a greasy breakfast hours before the throw-in, and they would probably still have carried the day by a big margin, so outclassed were their hosts.

Of course, Henry Shefflin and his management team were hardly to know that beforehand and it was hard to blame them for fielding their strongest team of 2024 given how desperately unlucky Antrim were to lose to Dublin at the same venue a fortnight previously.

Even allowing for Antrim’s limitations, this was a very positive response to Galway’s loss to Tipperary in Thurles. Their hurling was sharp, while there was little messing around apart from needlessly trying to engineer goals when points were begging to be taken.

Maybe, it was just as well as Galway would almost certainly have crashed through the 40-point barrier, and considering how proud the hurling outpost of Antrim is of the ‘clash of the ash’, that would have been an embarrassment that the county could do without or deserve.

From the moment Jason Flynn blocked down defender Phelim Duffy to fire home into an empty net with little more than a minute gone on the clock, this third-round league clash quickly turned into a turkey shoot as Galway established an interval lead of 1-15 to 1-7, despite facing the strong wind.

Flynn went on to score Galway’s second goal in the 41st minute but he had to work much harder this time after successfully taking on a couple of defenders, with a Darren Morrissey delivery and a Conor Whelan pass creating the opening. The Tommy Larkins’ clubman has been in vibrant form so far this Spring.

Pictured: Jason Flynn who scored both of Galway's goals in their big win over Antrim in the National Hurling League at Corrigan Park on Sunday.