Date Published: 22-Mar-2011

Galway 0-13

Cork 0-16

Dara Bradley

STRUGGLING – it’s the new prefix that increasingly precedes mention of the Galway senior football team.

On Sunday morning, listeners to national radio stations’ sports bulletins of a round-up preview of the day’s National Football League action were told that All-Ireland champions Cork take on “struggling Galway” in Salthill. Cork weren’t playing Galway or Tomás Ó Flathartha’s Galway. No, it was “struggling Galway”. The implication was clear: this will be a cakewalk for the visitors.

Maybe it helped to breed complacency in the Rebels; maybe being written off fired Galway up; but at times in the sunshine at Pearse Stadium, if you didn’t know otherwise, you’d be hard pressed to pick out which of the two teams was “struggling Galway” and, which was the best team in the land in 2010.

Backs firmly against the wall, the Tribesmen produced by far their best display of Ó Flatharta’s reign. It wasn’t good enough to take the spoils, probably won’t be enough to retain Division 1 status, but it should restore some much-needed confidence to the players and will give hope to fans that maybe, just maybe, Galway are getting back on the right track.

Fifteen minutes in, Cork were cruising and Galway were, well, struggling to get a foothold as Conor Counihan’s men cantered to a 0-5 to 0-1 lead with scores from Daniel Goulding, a free and two classy points from play, Fintan Gould and Patrick Kelly (free). Same old Galway we thought, and at that stage the talk was all about how much of a cricket score Cork would win by.

It could have been a lot worse when a long ball into the danger area wasn’t dealt with by the Galway defence but full-forward Colm O’Neill’s shot was clinically stopped by Adrian Faherty.

Then there was a stoppage to allow O’Neill, who took a knock to his ankle, receive assistance leaving the pitch, and once play resumed minutes later it was a completely different match. Cork nodded off, Galway sprung to life.

Inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of Matthew Clancy in particular, Galway conjured up their most purposeful and exciting 20 minutes of football all year. Clancy commenced the fight back with a point after linking up with Cathal Kenny, and the Oughterard man was involved again minutes later when he combined with Fiachra Breathnach to release Cormac Bane for his second white flag of the day.

At 0-3 to 0-5, Galway had the perfect opportunity to hit the front when a one-two with Paul Conroy put Breathnach through on a one-on-one situation with Cork custodian Ken O’Halloran but the wing forward, having done the hard work by rounding corner-back Ray Carey, didn’t even force a save from the ‘keeper and sliced it badly wide with his right foot when using his left peg was the more sensible option. A howler of a miss that proved costly in the end.

Still, Galway kept going and with Joe Bergin and Finian Hanley fielding more than their fair share around the centre, the Tribesmen had enough possession to keep the Cork rearguard under pressure, which led to two frees that were converted by Bane and Eoin Concannon, bringing the sides level at 0-5 apiece.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.