Impressive Galway minors put the Rossies to the sword

Galway 4-18

Roscommon 0-8

A dominant second half performance saw the Galway minor footballers open their Connacht Championship campaign in style last Friday evening as they blew Roscommon away at Tuam Stadium. The home side hit 2-9 without reply in a 15-minute spell during that second period to take complete control of what had been a tight game for the opening 30 minutes.

Two goals in first half injury time put Dónal Ó Fátharta’s side in command at the break, however, and when two more followed early in the second half, Roscommon wilted. From there, it was a case of Galway picking off scores with little resistance. While it took Galway a while to get going early on, Ó Fátharta was obviously pleased with how things panned out.

“We knew Roscommon have good forwards so the plan was to keep it tight. We had an idea that they might have a sweeper so we planned for that, but the guys in defence put the pressure on all over the field. Once we limited them to a few scores and got the couple of goals before half-time, that made the difference.

“With young lads, it can be difficult to get the head up again. Roscommon are a good team, we know they are a good team over the last couple of years. They have some fine players and that scoreline doesn’t do justice to them. It was one of those days where everything went right for us. The next day against Sligo, it mightn’t be as good. Look, we’re happy with our guys, we’re happy with the performance, with the way they played, the way they worked hard and tackled, stuff we’ve been working on, so we’re happy overall.”

It was Roscommon who made the better start to the contest, an Aaron McDermott free getting them off the mark in the second minute as Galway struggled to string moves together. Ryan Monahan did get the Tribesmen’s first score from a placed ball in the 10th minute but Liam Ormsby edged Roscommon ahead again soon after.

Moycullen’s Paul Kelly was immense at midfield for Galway and he popped up with a point in the 13th minute to draw the sides level. Roscommon’s Eoghan Derwin and Galway’s Oisín Gormally exchanged scores soon after before Kelly was on hand again to fist a point over the bar to finish a good move.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.