Tribesmen make a big statement by toppling Kerry men

GALWAY 1-13

KERRY   1-10

FOR long periods it was akin to two lions roaring at each other across a pond without either of them being willing to chance swimming to the other side for a confrontation — eventually, when Galway made the crossing, their claws were far too sharp for a Kerry footballing animal that now lies severely wounded.

To put it mildly, this was no great footballing spectacle, but this week Galway won’t worry one jot about the aesthetics of this first round Super 8s match as they confounded the odds, and the critics, with a victory over Kerry that was a measure or two more decisive than the three point winning margin might suggest.

There was some hard-core evidence from this season’s National League and Connacht championship campaigns that Galway had matured into a more durable footballing force and yet a nagging fear remained, that once more, Kerry could switch on the turbo at Croker and power to victory.

The memories were fresh too of last year’s capitulation to Kerry but on Sunday, right from the opening minutes, it was obvious that Galway were dictating the terms of the match: very compact in defence and solid around midfield, especially on their own kick-outs.

The only missing piece in the Galway jigsaw through the first-half was in attack, where they did succeed in creating a decent quota of scoring chances, but on eight occasions missed the target from relatively good positions.

Eamonn Brannigan, Michael Daly, Damien Comer, Shane Walsh and Johnny Heaney all spurned decent enough chances but at least Galway were winning a consistent supply of primary possession and were keeping Kerry on the back foot for extended periods of the opening half.

However, with Kerry ‘staying back’ and Galway to a large extent opting for the same cautious approach, the first half provided only a very stingy level of entertainment in the giant stadium that had more empty seats than full ones.

While the official attendance for the double bill was officially clocked up at 30,740, there was never that many people in the ground at any one time, a factor that contributed to the strange, indeed almost eerie atmosphere, at a venue that at times can be just too big for some of the so-called smaller matches.

A most unfortunate injury suffered by Galway’s Paul Conroy, when he was stretchered off with a broken leg after he slid into Kerry’s Seán Ó Shea on the slippery surface, also led to an eight minute stoppage in play during the early part of the third quarter.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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