Lucky Galway get out of jail !

Date Published: {J}

Galway 1-10

Sligo 1-10

FRANK FARRAGHER

INCREDULITY was transported to one of its furthest outposts in a somewhat bizarre Connacht football semi-final at Pearse Stadium on Sunday between one team seemingly destined to pull off an historic success and another fated for one of its greatest ever ignominies.

Overall this wasn’t a pretty package. The most creative spell of creative football came from Sligo during a high energy first half but a bit like an old Dracula movie, just when the stake was about to be driven through the heart, Galway wriggled free and avoided the fatal blow.

It was hard to figure out at the end which set of supporters was the most shell shocked. Galway fans, after witnessing quite an awful performance, were almost embarrassed to be still surviving in the Connacht series – the Sligo faithful couldn’t credit how they had let victory slip right through their fingers.

These are troubled times for Galway following their struggle through the league and the New York championship scare – unfortunately based on the evidence of last Sunday, it is hard to see where any progress has been made since the start of the year.

Sligo should have won this game comfortably, given the possession stranglehold they enjoyed for large chunks of this match and the 1-8 to 0-2 interval lead that they powered into by the time Meath referee David Coldrick sounded the interval whistle.

Instead of continuing on with the positive football which had Sligo in such a powerful position at half-time, they embarked on a defensive policy with a lot of players funnelling back behind midfield and Eamon O’Hara being deployed as a sweeper in front of the Galway full forward line.

They could see the winning post in front of them . . . it was there to be passed . . . but staying calm, staying in the present, can be a difficult state of mind to maintain, especially given the Sligo history of near things against their old rivals.

A modest second half scoring total of four or five points would have seen Sligo over the line, and even allowing for their defensive modus operandi, they still had four to five clear-cut chances of points which they spurned. Those were the misses that cost Sligo victory.

The second half was no advertisement for Connacht football and certainly sent out no signal of any impending visit across the Shannon of Sam Maguire. There were some dreadful examples of kicked passes going astray from both sides, while many of the wides had a real cringe factor to them.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.