Galway’s back up talent make short work of wasteful Kildare

GALWAY 0-16

KILDARE 0-10

IN the end, it turned out to be a day for the completion of the Spring housekeeping and that chore was ticked off the list by Galway with a minimum of fuss at St. Conleth’s Park on Sunday as they ran out pretty easy winners against already relegated Kildare.

This was a match that slipped into the routine category and in truth it lacked the bite of previous league encounters for Galway as pointless Kildare had nothing left to play for but pride, while Kevin Walsh’s side were already through to the league final.

This National League Division One clash did provide some lively passages of football from both sides, but Kildare’s profligate forward division – they shot 16 wides over the course of the match – ensured that Galway were never seriously troubled.

Few could have predicted last January that Galway would have been through to the league decider before a ball was kicked in their final match against Kildare, and that little bit of luxury allowed Kevin Walsh the opportunity to give a run to a number of players on the fringes of the action up until now.

Stalwarts so far through the league campaign such as Seán Andy Ó Ceallaigh, Eoghan Kerin, Johnny Heaney, Paul Conroy, Peter Cooke, Shane Walsh, Damien Comer and Barry McHugh were all rested for this match, but those who ‘stepped in’ gave solid performances.

Kildare only drew level once with Galway in this match watched by a decent enough crowd of close on 3,000 after centre forward Patrick Sweeney had landed two neat early points – Éanna O’Connor and Tommy Moolick then roused the home crowd with two points but that was as good as it got for the home followers.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.