Galway ladies footballers crush hapless Tyrone

Galway 2-20 Tyrone 2-5

THE Galway senior team continued a good week for ladies football in the county as they blitzed Tyrone on Saturday last in the All-Ireland championship quarter-final at Kingspan Breffni Park.

Barry Downey’s charges led from start to finish in a one-sided encounter where they oozed confidence and always were in control. Every possession and scoring stat was firmly in the Tribeswomen’s favour with a goal from midfielder Ger Conneally after just 50 seconds kick-starting this Galway rout.

Eleven players were on target for Galway over the course of the 60 minutes, with just three points coming from placed balls. Player of the Match Annette Clarke was in superb form and finished this game with five points from play, three in the opening half, as Galway took a commanding 1-11 to 0-2 interval lead.

Tyrone’s scoring opportunities were few and far between during that chastening opening-half, with Cathy Donnelly pointing after three and a half minutes, but it would be a further 22 minutes before their next score when  Lycrecia Quinn found the target.

In the intervening period, Galway bagged nine unanswered points, with Edel Concannon, Rebecca McPhilbin, Sinead Burke, Clarke, Barbara Hannon and Aoibheann Daly all on target.

A sinbinning for Emer Flaherty six minutes into the second half threatened to somewhat impact on Galway’s superiority, but Tyrone failed to make the most of their numerical advantage at this stage. Galway led by a commanding 1-16 to 0-3 after 41 minutes, before Tyrone claimed their first goal from Niamh O’Neill. An extended match report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.