Galway need clinical streak to break free from the pack

Inside Track with John McIntyre

NO matter how you dress it up, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion . . . that was a bad result for Galway footballers at Pairc Tailteann last Sunday. Unbeaten heading in their Division Two league fixture against the struggling Royals, the Tribesmen were again found wanting when the game was there to be won.

Though Galway’s promotion prospects are still in their own hands, this one-point loss in Navan has resulted in doubts about the team’s potential resurfacing. It’s not by chance that they suffered a shock loss to Tipperary in last year’s championship quarter-final and have been trying unsuccessfully for six years to escape from Division Two.

Typically, Galway were again a mixed bag in this fourth-round tie. They started well against the elements, then faded out of the contest and, approaching half-time, had fallen 0-8 to 0-3 in arrears. They now had work to do and, to their credit, Gary O’Donnell and company managed to turn the game on its head to such an extent that another win looked on the cards ten minutes from time.

Galway had gone from five points behind to leading by 0-13 to 0-10, and with all the momentum behind them. Michael Daly, Barry McHugh (3), O’Donnell, the impressive Paul Conroy (2), Liam Silke and Shane Walsh had all registered scores as the men in maroon put themselves in a great position to stay at the top of the division. The likes of Dublin or Tyrone would then have closed out the game, but instead Galway left victory behind them.

Cillian O’Sullivan and Donal Lenihan had been causing the visitors trouble all day and it was the latter’s goal in the 66th minute which proved the matchwinner. Tom Flynn and substitute Johnny Heaney did manage Galway points down the home stretch, but the Royals had rediscovered some of their traditional defiance by now and managed to hang on for a 1-13 to 0-15 victory.

This result has now blown Division Two wide open and though Galway are far from the only inconsistent team in the league, they had been building up a significant head of steam prior to Sunday’s defeat. Granted, Damien Comer was an injured absentee, but this was a victory which got away. Naturally, most observers will focus on the turnaround over the final ten minutes, but Galway had a couple of goal chances from Walsh and Eamon Brannigan in the first half but failed to finish them.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.