Galway footballers miss too much in Croke Park

KERRY 1-20

GALWAY 2-10

IT’S been something of a mystery tour adventure for Galway footballers this year but the riddle of ‘where we are’ remains unresolved after a quarter-final display against Kerry that delivered almost equal measures of hope and frustration.

Galway could have — and probably should have — done a lot better than only coming within seven points of a Kerry side that admittedly held a critical advantage in terms of picking off points from the half-chance situations.

For a fair chunk of the first half at Croke Park on Sunday, Galway teetered on the brink of a humiliating hammering and strangely enough a lot of the problems had been self-inflicted.

Galway had struck ten first half wides, four of them in the first six minutes, as a lack of composure in front of goal and an absence of calmness to make the last pass to set up the certain point or goal, led to a series of quite shocking wides.

Every miss bored a gaping hole into the confidence reserve of Alan Mulholland’s side and when James O’Donoghue in the 12th minute took a Johnny Buckley pass before slipping far too easily past his marker Donal O’Neill and then hammering the ball to the net, Galway fans feared it was going to be one long, hard day.

Galway had to wait until the 19th minute of the match for their first score  — a very tidy left footed effort from Michael Lundy, whose energy, pace and workrate played a key role in his team’s revival as the game wore on.

Just over 20 minutes into the first half, Kerry had powered their way into a 1-6 to 0-1 lead thanks to points from Donnchadh Walsh, sub David Moran, Michael Geaney and the pretty much unmarkable James O’Donoghue. After an even enough opening period in terms of possession, there was a stark inequality about the scoreline.

Two Galway points from Gareth Bradshaw and Shane Walsh (free) delivered a couple of wisps of hope but just on the half hour mark the game exploded into a real contest.

Finian Hanley had the first ball win deep in his own half before dispatching to Gareth Bradshaw who made a spirited break from defence and then passed swiftly to Thomas Flynn, just inside his own half of the field.

No real danger seemed to present itself for Kerry but Flynn turned on the turbo before sprinting through the winner’s defence and shooting low under the legs of ‘keeper Brian Kelly. It was a score that has to be a contender for the goal of the season.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.