Galway footballers lose but survive the drop

Monaghan 0-13

Galway 0-12

Disappointment at the result but relief at surviving in Division 2 of the National League, probably summed up the mood of Galway manager, Alan Mulholland, in the aftermath of the one point defeat to Monaghan at Clones on Sunday.

Like his players, Mulholland knew that a great chance of extending Galway’s three match unbeaten run had been missed but the blow was softened a bit when news filtered through from both Armagh and Portlaoise.

“Yes I suppose that there is great relief that we have held our position in Division 2. We really didn’t want to drop down to Division 3 and we did the business with the two home wins against Down and Armagh, but today’s result was very disappointing.

“We played a lot of good football today and won a lot of possession – the least I thought we deserved from the game was a draw. I thought that we deserved a free after that last kick-out but we didn’t get it and Monaghan punished us,” Mulholland told The Sentinel.

He said that Monaghan had a great record in Clones, being unbeaten there over recent years, with Galway having a great opportunity on Sunday to pull off what would have been a big victory.

“I know the sending off was a blow to us but we still finished the match very strongly and had the chances to win it. The lads just deserved to get something from the effort that they put in,” he said.

However looking at the bigger picture, Mulholland said that he was ‘very pleased’ with the progress Galway had made over the last four matches of the league.

“We had a tough early programme of matches but to end up pointless after the first three did put the pressure on us. But from the Down match on, we really stepped up our performance levels, and really we should have won the last four games.

“We were caught late on against Louth for the draw and today we put some great passages of football together. The last four matches have been very encouraging – we now have to sit down, see where we are, and plan for the Connacht championship,” added Mulholland.

Galway’s next big date is against London in the first round of the Connacht championship in Ruislip on Sunday, May 25 (seven weeks from next Sunday) with the winners due to play Sligo on the Saturday evening of June 21 in Sligo, provisionally pencilled in as one of the early Sky Sports games.

The first round of the Galway club championships has been scheduled for the week ending, Sunday June 8 – the Bank Holiday weekend of Sunday, June 1, has been left free of Galway club championship matches due to Moycullen hosting the Comortas Peil na Gaeltachta competition.