Galway make heavy work of defeating Carlow

Galway 2-18

Carlow 0-15

GALWAY hurlers mini tour of the Midlands on Walsh Cup duty came to a satisfactory conclusion in an unsatisfactory match at sparsely attended Dr. Cullen Park on Sunday.

About 400 hardy souls saw a poor standard, disjointed and occasionally bad tempered contest which ended with 14-man Galway recording a somewhat flattering nine-point victory to set up a showdown with Dublin in Croke Park this Saturday evening.

The likelihood that the Tribesmen’s trip to Dr. Cullen Park would provide more opposition resistance than was the case in Tullamore the previous weekend increased sharply when Galway’s Walsh Cup captain Andy Smith was dismissed on a straight red card after only six minutes.

The Portman clubman had got involved in an off-the-ball incident with Richard Coady, which left the Carlow wing back requiring some medical treatment, and Kilkenny referee Gavin Quilty immediately dismissed Smith after consulting with his umpires.

Suddenly, Galway had a real battle on their hands and for much of the opening quarter, the prospect of a shock result was on the cards. Carlow, with former Cork boss John Allen now assisting their preparations, were clearly up for the battle and deserved to be 0-6 to 0-4 ahead after 17 minutes.

It was already clear that Galway weren’t performing with the same rhythm or purpose as had been the case against Offaly seven days earlier, with a number of their players struggling to make a consistent impact, although midfielder Joseph Cooney wasn’t one of them, especially when it came to securing primary possession.

Cooney had opened Galway’s account in the second minute with Jonathan Glynn, who caused the Carlow defence no shortage of problems, Dean Higgins and James Regan also registering white flags early on, but it was the home team who were shading it on the scoreboard as midfielder Diarmuid Byrne, Michael John Nolan, Seamus Murphy and Martin Kavanagh picked off some quality efforts.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.