Galway miss too much

A first half wide tally of nine, the inability to convert goal opportunities and the failure of referee James McGrath to play advantage when Jonathan Glynn was in on goal late on, these were the issues that Galway manager Anthony Cunningham got off his chest in his post-match interview.

Defeated by Kilkenny 1-16 to 0-15 in a competitive National Hurling League semi-final, the Tribesmen, despite their wastefulness, were 0-11 to 0-6 to the good at half-time but were subsequently outgunned by 1-10 to 0-4 by the Cats in the second period.

Cunningham agreed Galway’s incapability to take a greater number of their first half scoring chances was costly. “A few of them [shots] were rushed and we missed two goals chances in the first half as well. And then invariably those same chances dried up after that.

“Kilkenny though had a strong second half performance. They have a lot of experience in that team while for us it was a huge learning [curve] and part of our development. Look it, we are going to be gunning for Kilkenny whenever we meet in the championship – and so will every other team. We are progressing well. We would be happy.”

However, the Galway boss was less than satisfied with referee McGrath’s decision not to allow Glynn the opportunity to net when through on goal late on – instead hauling back play for a 20-metre free. A Galway goal at that stage would have reduced the margin to just a point with injury-time to play.

“There will always be close calls but I think that one was very unfair,” he said. “At that stage of the match, we would have been looking for advantage. We failed to take a few chances there though and Kilkenny were always going to come back at us [in the second half].

“In saying that, we are disappointed. It was a game we could have won; we had enough chances. We played well enough in defence and midfield for most of the match and we had a lot of good play up front as well. We will have to be a bit sharper the next day we meet.”

When pushed on the late incident, Cunningham maintained there should be a move to implement the advantage rule in such an incidence. “Absolutely,” he insisted. “I think the advantage rule in the U-21 [All-Ireland football] semi-finals yesterday was excellent and it should be brought into hurling.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.