Connacht Tribune
Galway’s late collapse leads to shock quarter-final exit
Cavan 1-11
Galway 0-11
BELOW-par Galway faded badly in the closing 15 minutes of Saturday’s All-Ireland minor football quarter-final and were dumped out of the championship by a resilient Cavan team that never gave up.
Galway led by three points to no score after the first quarter, had their noses in front at half-time, landed four of the first five second-half scores, and enjoyed a four-points advantage going into the final quarter, yet still managed to lose a game that was there for the taking.
The Tribesmen in many ways were the architects of their own downfall – they were inconsistent throughout and were guilty of too many turnovers and gifting scores to their opponents through silly, preventable mistakes.
Though they were in front for most of the hour, their lead never looked convincing, and they always seemed vulnerable to what eventually occurred – a rousing late flourish by a hungrier outfit.
For some reason, Galway just didn’t appear tuned-in, and they lacked focus and concentration. Surely, they didn’t take Cavan for granted?
You’d expect not but it was as if Galway felt they’d done enough when they led by ten points to six entering the final stretch.
Although they hadn’t performed all that well to put themselves in that winning position, they ought to have had enough in the tank to hold on. But they switched off and lost their shape and Cavan, like they did in the Ulster championship campaign, hung in there, and displayed serious resilience and courage to finish so strongly.
The longer Galway kept Cavan in it, the more the beaten Ulster finalists grew in confidence, and they outscored Galway by 1-5 to a solitary point in the last quarter to deservedly take the spoils.
Corner-forward Oisín Pierson’s goal in the 57th minute was an absolute cracker, set up by Ruairi Curran, and it gave Cavan the lead for the first time at a crucial juncture heading down the home straight.
Galway had been leading by 11-9 at that stage but it wasn’t as if the game’s only goal and decisive score came against the run of play. It was coming. Moments beforehand midfielder Ronan Patterson blasted wide with the goal at his mercy after a fine build-up involving Pierson, Callum Lynch and Philip Rogers.
Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.