Conroy inspires stirring comeback by footballers

Date Published: 28-Mar-2012

GALWAY 1-14

MONAGHAN 0-12

FRANK FARRAGHER AT PEARSE PARK

WHERE there’s heart there’s hope, and Galway – after eyeballing the abyss of adversity for a solid 35 minutes – then drilled into a reserve of resilience and courage to extract two invaluable league points from this entertaining Division 2 National League tie at Longford on Sunday.

Football truly is a funny old game and 31 minutes into this encounter at a spic’n’span Pearse Park – when Monaghan led by 0-8 to 0-3 – it would have been hard to find a solitary Galway fan in the disappointing crowd of about 600, who would have held out any hope of getting something out of this game.

For that first half hour – played in sunshine that wouldn’t be out of place in mid-June – Monaghan had won the key possession battles and had played the game at a different pace to Galway, but despite a wealth of possession, Eamon McEneaney’s side had never quite fully turned the screw.

Galway had one change from their starting line-up with Nicky Joyce not in the travelling party on Sunday – his place at left half forward being filled by Milltown’s Mark Hehir.

One Galway player lit the fuse that would ignite a most amazing second-half recovery. Full forward Paul Conroy kicked three magnificent points as the first-half ticked into borrowed time, two 50 yard frees and one neat effort from play. By the time referee Cormac Reilly sounded the interval whistle, Monaghan’s first half of dominance was reflected in a meagre two point scoreboard advantage of 0-8 to 0-6.

Galway moved at half-time to introduce Greg Higgins and Danny Cummins for Cormac Bane and Michael Martin while eight minutes into the second period, Padraic Joyce came on for Damien Burke.

For a time, Galway effectively played with a three man midfield of Thomas Flynn, Joe Bergin and Greg Higgins, but in addition to the switches in personnel, there was also a change in attitude right through the pitch.

Defensively Galway backs got to the ball first, the Monaghan first half midfield stranglehold was broken with Joe Bergin and Greg Higgins turning in big second half displays, while up front the wiles of Padraic Joyce provided the openings for Paul Conroy to do a lot of damage on the Monaghan defence.

Monaghan’s first half pace surges upfield were all nipped in the bud and by the 54th minute, Galway had drawn level at 0-10 apiece, thanks to points from Joyce (free), Conroy, Gary Sice and Gary O’Donnell.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.