Football

Salthill men back on track

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Salthill / Knocknacarra    1-16

Micheal Breathnach        0-11

Cian O’Connell at Pearse Stadium

THERE was never any hint of another Pearse Stadium shock on Saturday evening as Salthill-Knocknacarra easily dealt with Micheal Breathnach’s to book a place in the last 16 of the Galway SFC.

That is exactly where the reigning champions’ wanted to be and this emphatic win will have gone some way towards cleansing the surprise loss to Carna-Caiseal from the system. This was a much improved Salthill-Knocknacarra display compared to three weeks previously.

The sole similarity was the sheer effectiveness and threat of Sean Armstrong, who dovetailed nicely with Seamie Crowe as they formed a potent and lethal inside threat. Elsewhere, the support cast were on the money too as Salthill-Knocknacarra’s application levels couldn’t be faulted this time around. The city men were primed for a battle, but they only got that for the first ten minutes as Breathnach’s initial feistiness was burned.

Their marquee men weren’t permitted to have any significant influence on proceedings and by the end the Connemara outfit were dealing in damage limitation. A relegation scrap looms and while the draw hasn’t been kind to them so far, Breathnach’s cannot take even slight encouragement because both Corofin and Salthill-Knocknacarra annihilated them. Had the mood taken Salthill, they could really have inflicted a serious beating because Cathal McGinley’s charges were vastly superior in every facet.

Dominant at centrefield where John Boylan and David Tierney put in a solid hour’s graft, Salthill’s forward unit was given enough possession to dine out. Armstrong and Crowe’s conversion rates were fairly efficient and it meant Breathnach’s were forced to chase the game from an early stage. With Peadar O Gríofa still injured, they hadn’t the punch to land a blow that might have troubled Salthill.

It was Armstrong and Crowe who were the chief tormentors and by the time the interval rolled around, Salthill had a comfortable and commanding 1-8 to 0-5 advantage. Most of the damage was done midway through the half when they reeled off 1-5 without reply. During that burst Breathnach’s were struggling, Salthill were soaring, and it was down to the polished promptings of Armstrong and Crowe.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel. 

 

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