City club advance after just holding off gallant late fightback from Tuam Stars

SALTHILL/KNOCKNACARRA 1-9

TUAM STARS 1-8

IT mightn’t have been a classic with loads of mistakes and possession turnovers in evidence, but for all that, this Group 2 senior championship clash at Corofin on Sunday did supply a fair sprinkling of wholesome entertainment for about 500 spectators.

The narrow win for Salthill propels them into the knock-out stages of the championship while Tuam Stars find themselves in the unfamiliar role of having to play themselves out of relegation trouble over the coming weeks.

Two high-dividend golden spells for Salthill, either side of the interval break, proved crucial in getting them over the line against a Tuam side who started well and finished strongly – but many of the bits in the middle were problematic for the Stars.

Backed by the swirling and slightly wintry first half breeze, Tuam got the ideal start within the first minute when a precision side-footed pass from Conor Doherty fell perfectly into the path of Ben O’Connell who finished neatly to the net from close range.

A quickfire Gary O’Donnell point followed, as Tuam led for the first half hour of the match, with further points from Cormac McWalter and two Jimmy Murphy efforts, one of them a super-strike from near the left sideline.

As the half wore on, Salthill gradually began to dominate possession with Barry Kelly fetching some good ball around the middle of the field – points from Seán Armstrong (free), Andrew Butler, Robert Finnerty (free) and Gearóid Armstrong reduced the deficit to a goal, at 1-4 to 0-4.

Referee Noel Dempsey played a rather unexpected six-and-a-half minutes of injury-time and while this ‘extra allocation’ might have been expected to be of benefit to Tuam – given their wind advantage – the opposite turned out to be the case.

There were danger signs for Tuam even before that, when initially Robert Finnerty and then Gearóid O Leidhinn, both squandered pretty straightforward goal opportunities for Salthill in the 27th minute in the one segment of play.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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