Alarm bells ring for Galway

Date Published: 09-Feb-2010

NEW Galway football manager, Joe Kernan, won’t be under any illusions about the scale of the task facing him this season, following a heavy National League defeat to Mayo in Castlebar on Sunday.

Admittedly Galway were under-strength – without the Corofin contingent and Padraic Joyce – while an injury worry restricted Michael Meehan to a second half appearance.

However the ease with which Mayo brushed aside the Galway challenge sent a lot of alarm bells ringing in the maroon camp, although Joe Kernan will be pushing hard for a big rebound next Sunday when Monaghan visit Pearse Stadium.

In post-match interviews, Kernan admitted to being very disappointed with the Galway display and felt that his players were a lot better than they showed on Sunday.

It was a defeat which would hurt the players deeply, he said, in an obvious early motivational salvo before next Sunday’s showdown against a Monaghan side desperately unlucky to be beaten by All-Ireland finalists Cork in Scotstown.

Galway need to bounce back quickly in a highly competitive Division One of the National League – after the Monaghan game they face Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Tyrone and Derry. Even at this stage Galway are facing into a real survival battle.

Mayo manager, John O’Mahony, tried to play down his side’s victory as they prepare for stiffer tests ahead but he did admit to being pleased at the spirit and teamwork of the side.

He drew considerable satisfaction from the fact that 10 of his starting line-up – including three defenders – all featured in the Mayo scoresheet. O’Mahony though will be delighted with the points in the bag, given that his side face four away ties out of their remaining six fixtures.

A crowd of 6,000 turned out at McHale Park for the first usage of their impressive new 10,000 seater stand, but all the cheering came from the home supporters as at one point in the second half, Galway looked to be on course for a record drubbing when they trailed by 2-13 to 0-6.

The introduction of Michael Meehan at half-time – he didn’t start because of hamstring problems – brought about some level of improvement for Galway. The Caltra player notched 1-3, but Galway never looked like playing their way back into contention.

Mayo’s charge was slowed down in the third quarter due mainly to the dismissal of wing forward and captain Trevor Mortimer for a high challenge on Donal O’Neill, but by then his side had the points well and truly wrapped up.

It’s a ‘lick your wounds’ week for Galway as Kernan and his selectors – Tom Naughton and Seán Ó Dómhnaill – try to turn things round for the clash with Monaghan. They will be trying to build on the displays of Gareth Bradshaw, Finian Hanley and Michael Meehan but it seems fairly safe to assume that a number of changes will be made for this tie.

For the full match report see page 31 of this week’s Sentinel