Galway atone for first round league loss by putting Westmeath to the sword

Galway 5-11

Westmeath 0-7

Tomás Keating in Mullingar

GALWAY senior ladies footballers put their surprise loss to Waterford in the rear-view mirror as they comprehensively defeated Westmeath in the second round of the National League in Mullingar on Sunday.

Róisín Leonard was in devastating form as she scored a hat-trick to help the Tribeswomen earn their first victory in this year’s Division 1 campaign. The match was over as a contest after seven minutes after Galway’s two goal blitz in the space of 60 seconds through efforts from Leonard and Sarah Conneally.

One could say this clash was a must-win for Tim Rabbitt’s side as anything less would’ve dragged them into a potential relegation scrap, and taking that pressure into account, it was a very impressive performance from last year’s runners-up.

Galway were excellent in both facets of the game – attack and defence. Up front, their forward unit was near faultless as they didn’t register their first wide until midway through the second half. In defence, they tightened things up after last time out, where they conceded five goals against the Déise. They limited Westmeath to pot-shots and goalkeeper Dearbhla Gower had a quiet afternoon.

Next up, Galway will travel to Letterkenny where they will take-on Donegal in a curtain raiser to the men’s game. It’ll be another tough test for Galway as Maxi Curran’s charges beat Waterford 2-10 to 1-11 last weekend. Throw-in is at 1pm on Sunday at O’Donnell Park.

In the opening minute, it looked like Westmeath were going to give Galway problems. Straight from throw-in, Jo-Hanna Maher fired wide, but from the resulting kickout, Leona Archibold point to put Sean Finnegan’s side ahead. However, their lead didn’t last long as the Leonards, Tracey and Róisín, both kicked scores to put Galway 0-2 to 0-1 up after three minutes.

Four minutes later, Róisín Leonard received the ball in front of the goal unmarked and showed nerves of steel to calmly finish by ‘keeper Lauren McCormack. From the restart, Galway regained possession and Conneally was left all alone on the edge of the square. She made no mistake in slotting the ball past McCormack, who had to pick the ball from the net twice in the space of 60 seconds.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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