Galway boys finish strong to finally fend off brave Leitrim

GALWAY 2-17

LEITRIM  0-12

Mark Walsh In Bekan

FINAL scorelines can sometimes be deceiving.

Anyone glancing on Twitter or the Whats the Scór app on Saturday evening, would have been forgiven for thinking that Galway had it all their own way over another Leitrim team in competitive football. That wasn’t necessarily the case.

What Galway did do exceptionally well, was blitz Leitrim in the final quarter. At 1-11 to 0-11 come the water break, and with wing-back Adam Tierney having been given his marching orders for a second yellow card in swift time in minute 43, the game was finely poised. Galway outscored their opponents 1-6 to 0-1 from there to the finish, a feat all the more noteworthy being a man down.

Cillian Ó Curraoin’s 55th minute goal placed Galway into a 2-13 to 0-12 lead. While Leitrim were blowing hard coming up to added time, Galway were driving on, midfielder Conall Gallagher the leader in chief.

A word on Gallagher’s performance before continuing. The St Michael’s man was outstanding, his six points all excellent in execution, three slicing over off his right boot, a difficult skill to master correctly. He gave away a few inches in height to Leitrim’s Gavin Reynolds, a huge young man at under 17 level, but Gallagher was still the game’s dominant force in the middle third.

Manager Alan Glynn picked a starting 15 out of 12 different clubs, St James’, Claregalway and Salthill-Knocknacarra represented on the double. Gallagher was one of three players from last year’s squad who started, captain Daniel O’Flaherty from Salthill-Knocknacarra and goalie’ James Egan of St James’ the others.

In front of Egan, Killererin’s Eanna Donohue was flanked in the full-back line by a pair of Claregalway lads, in Jack Ramsey and Morgan Morrin. Darragh O’Malley played wing-forward in St Michael’s Minor A County final win over Claregalway at the end of September, and was picked to anchor the defence from centre-back. It was a task he carried out assuredly.

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

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