Poor discipline proves costly for 13-man Galway

Galway 0-11

Roscommon 1-11

POOR finishing and ill-discipline ultimately cut short Galway’s involvement in the inaugural U20 football championship.

The Tribesmen were the architects of their own downfall at Tuam Stadium on Saturday as they finished the day with just 13 men – and as many spurned scoring chances.

The victors, Roscommon, advanced to a provincial final against Mayo, the curtain raiser for the Connacht senior football final between Galway and Roscommon in Dr Hyde Park this coming Sunday.

The Rossies, who had already beaten Sligo in the quarter-final, were marginally the better outfit but Galway, in their first outing of the championship, only have themselves to blame.

They registered eight wides over the hour and many more were kicked astray and short into goalkeeper Aaron Burke’s hands. Worse again was their discipline, or lack of it.

Wing-forward Finian Ó Laoí, having made a good run down the left flank, earned a free in a scoreable position when fouled by Lorcan Daly.  Exactly what happened next is unclear, but the An Spidéal man, with a rush of blood to the head, appeared to swing for the corner back and after deliberations between officials was given a straight red card. That meant Galway were forced to play all but six minutes of the match with 14 men.

To have one player sent off for retaliation was bad enough; but to have a second getting his marching orders for a similar incident was inexcusable. With six minutes of normal time in the second half remaining, corner forward Robert Finnerty was shown the line.

The Salthill/Knocknacarra man, who in fairness had been showing well in attack, won a Roscommon kick-out, then won a free off corner back Liam Cregg. It too was in a scoreable position and had Galway nailed it, the gap would have been reduced to one score. But Finnerty and Cregg engaged in afters and both were red-carded while Daly was black-carded by referee Eamonn O’Grady.

That incident occurred when Galway were making some inroads on the comeback trail, and while there was still time to bag an all-important goal late-on, Roscommon rallied to keep their line intact.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune