Galway U.21 footballers flattered to finish

Date Published: 20-Mar-2009

IN the end, it was only a short head victory but really at the winning post it should have been a margin of 20 lengths as Mayo made the running all the way in this Connacht under-21 championship quarter- final at Charlestown on Saturday.
The record books show through the history of the GAA in the province, that Galway and Mayo championship encounters at all levels tend to even out over a period of years.
That extra mental edge in terms of motivation and hunger often draws the line between success and failure for the province’s greatest rivals — last Saturday at Fr. O’Hara Park, Mayo ticked all the right boxes in the work ethic and commitment categories.
The Mayo supporters, who made up the majority of the close on 2,000 crowd, had to endure a tension packed closing 10 minutes as Galway pressed for an equaliser but the home side should have been in the comfort zone long before that.
They dominated midfield for most of the match, and behind that sector they had a very lively half backline which mopped up mountains of loose ball — the end result was that over the hour Galway were starved of any decent supply of quality possession.