Galway ladies stun old rivals thanks to amazing fightback

Date Published: 11-Jul-2012

Mayo 1-17

Galway 4-10

JASON BYRNE AT McHALE PARK

WITH just over 13 minutes left in Sunday’s Connacht ladies football final, the scoreboard at McHale Park in Castlebar read Mayo 1-15 Galway 1-5. It seemed inevitable that the underdogs would succumb to another final defeat at the hands of their neighbours.

Somehow, in the next half hour those in green and red were left in shock standing idly out on the pitch; watching the team they thought they had easily defeated climb the stand to lift the cup.

Goals win games – and Galway ended up with four of them thanks to Edel Concannon on the stroke of half time as Ger Conneally, Eilis Gannon and substitute Gillian O’Connor all struck in a second half blitz which tore Mayo apart in a matter of minutes.

Galway began this Connacht ladies football final as underdogs in what was Gabriel Naughton’s first game in charge and in the first half it took them time to find their rhythm.The likes of Annette Clarke, Lorna Joyce, Aine Seoighe and goalkeeper Joanna Connolly were all recalled to the squad upon Naughton’s appointment and handed starting berths.

Mayo established a quick two-point cushion through Aileen Gilroy and Cora Staunton’s free, the first of her 14 points for Jimmy Corbett’s charges. After 25 minutes, all Galway had mustered were three points from Concannon frees, while Sarah Rowe and three more from Staunton saw Mayo lead 0-6 to 0-3.

They then pulled further clear when Gilroy raced through and after beating two Galway defenders, rasped into the net to widen the gap. Galway were enjoying plenty of the ball by now, but couldn’t get it past the Mayo 20-metre line.

Two more Staunton frees sailed over but in typical fashion Galway kept fighting, illustrated by their lifeline goal on the stroke of half-time. A swift break saw Aoibheann Daly find Ger Conneally, and the Dunmore McHales ace fed the perfect pass to the waiting Concannon who drove to the net just inside the post from close range.

Thus the second half began with Mayo leading 1-8 to 1-3, and Staunton sent over two belters from play and one free in the space of three minutes when Mayo began to pull away. But then they were dealt a blow when Gilroy was sin-binned for a hefty challenge on Sarah Conneally.

A minute later, Galway got their first score from play thanks to Gannon and were handed a real lifeline when Concannon flicked to Daly and as she bore down on goal Mayo skipper Claire Egan flung her to the ground and a penalty was awarded – with Egan joining Gilroy in the sin-bin.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.