Galway cut a dash in denying Derry

Date Published: 01-Apr-2008

IN terms of the league, a day of reckoning for Galway at Pearse Stadium on Sunday — and not one without its share of old fears and hang-ups — but on the first day of Summer time, almost all of the fair weather football was supplied by the home side.

Galway had left at least one point behind them at Ballybofey a fortnight previously, and there was some loose talk around that maybe Liam Sammon’s side had cleared out their magazine in the first three matches.

The answer to that, in front of just over 1,500 home fans last Sunday — (another very disappointing crowd considering the product on offer) — was pretty emphatic, as Galway’s clever use of pace and space, time after time carved open a Derry defence, full of vigour and effort but a little short in terms of anticipation and savvy.

With the prospect of a clash against an in-form Mayo side looming in Castlebar on Sunday, Galway won’t be dancing around any bonfires this week but they will have taken a certain quiet satisfaction at their clinical dissection of a Derry side which travelled South with high hopes.

And while most of the talk along the Mannix Road and the Prom around 4pm last Sunday was about Galway’s attacking wizardry which delivered three goals and at least four other clear-cut goal chances, the team management will have taken equal solace from the defensive and midfield foundations which helped to deliver this result.

Derry had rammed in 1-16 against Kildare in the previous match with Enda Muldoon and Paddy Bradley weaving all kinds of attacking patterns, but last Sunday, Galway defended with a dash and determination which minimised chance creation in the Northern forward division.

Finian Hanley never gave danger man Bradley a yard of free space — holding him scoreless over the course of the match — while …………………..