Galway captain Conroy expecting a dour qualifier battle against Armagh

CAPTAIN Paul Conroy says he is expecting a tough task when the Galway senior footballers line-out against Armagh in the qualifiers away on Sunday (3pm).

The St James’ clubman believes Galway may have to ‘grind out’ a win in the Athletic Grounds in the Orchard County, which would be a massive confidence booster following the Connacht Championship semi-final exit to Mayo three weeks ago.

When these two sides last met in championship, Galway emerged from Salthill with a surprise win, 1-11 to 0-9, in 2013, having limped over Tipperary and Waterford in the previous qualifier rounds, and it gave them the confidence to have a crack at Kerry in Croke Park.

The incentives this time are huge, too: lose, and Galway are out of the 2015 championship; win and Galway are out the following week, and again the week after through the qualifier route, which would be a momentum builder ahead of a potential All-Ireland quarter-final.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Conroy of the task facing Galway in Armagh. “It’s the usual Armagh and the usual Northern teams – they’re going to be defensive and they’re going to be tough. It’s not easy to go up the North and come away with a win.

“We’re expecting a massive challenge. It’s hard to know where they are at – they suffered a fairly heavy defeat to Donegal but they have bounced back again with a good win the last day (against Wicklow).

“And they have got some quality players in their team that we will have to pay close attention to. We played them in Galway two years ago, in Salthill in the championship and we beat them. But it’s a different ball game going up playing them in their own back yard. It’s going to be very difficult. That said we’d be confident going up there. I think our team is doing quite well this year, it would be great to get back on track with a victory up in Armagh.”

Conroy said Galway has regrouped since losing to Mayo in Pearse Stadium in June and that there is a good buzz in training. He insisted they’ve taken some positives from the 2-8 to 1-15, four points defeat to Mayo, and identified areas for improvement ahead of the clash with Kieran McGeeney’s side.

“I suppose there’re a lot of positives but also a lot of negatives that we have to take from the Mayo game. Firstly the negatives, for myself was the black card, and then as a team the goal we let in cost us dearly I think. Physically we matched Mayo, which is something we hadn’t done over the last few years and that’s something we’re obviously going to try and build on. On the negative side as well I suppose we didn’t score many points from play and so that’s another area we need to sharpen up on if we want to stay in the championship.

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