Footballers in a bad place

Date Published: {J}

Frank Farragher

WITH Meath rolling down the tracks, Galway manager Alan Mulholland is glad of the quick turnaround following the disappointment of their one point defeat (0-14 to 0-13) to Westmeath in Division Two of the National League in Mullingar last Sunday.

While Mulholland admits to naturally being bitterly disappointed at not getting anything out of the Westmeath game, he believes that the arrival of Meath to Pearse Stadium next Sunday, (2.30pm), will help focus the minds of his players.

“We all feel that we should have got something out of last Sunday and we just needed to show an extra bit of composure in the closing minutes to see the game through, but it didn’t happen, and I suppose we just have to learn from the experience,” said Mulholland.

He and his management team of Donal Ó Fatharta and Alan Flynn, face an added complication this weekend with Gerry Fahy’s county under-21 side preparing for their Connacht championship clash with Mayo on the following Wednesday (March 14) in Castlebar.

“All along, I had an understanding with Gerry Fahy that we would do whatever we could to ‘spare’ the under-21s for the match against Mayo. I had hoped of course that we would have a couple of more points in the bag before next Sunday, but I certainly want to give the under-21 lads a fair chance before the Mayo game,” said the Galway manager.

Last Sunday, under-21 midfielder Thomas Flynn (Athenry) didn’t start — being replaced by Niall Coleman — as he had lined out for his club on Saturday in the club under-21 championship.

The return of Sean Armstrong to competitive action last Sunday — he came on for Mark Hehir during the second half — has given Mulholland another option in attack while Caherlistrane’s Cormac Bane has also recovered from a hamstring injury.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.