Unexpected evening of redemption for Galway football

HOW different the atmosphere was at Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening compared to the aftermath of the three previous championship games which took place at the Salthill venue this summer. This was an evening of redemption for Galway football.

Whereas Mayo had humiliated the Tribesmen in May, and there was nothing to celebrate after narrow wins over Division Four sides Tipperary and Waterford, all had changed, changed utterly as Alan Mulholland and his new-look team returned to the dressing-room under the stand.

They had shocked the bookies, outfought Armagh, and there was a genuine feeling of celebration in the air as the hard core of Galway football people, beaming smiles across their faces, stayed around and hugged each other in the wake of this unexpected victory.

This team was simply expected to fold and exit the championship meekly against the northern raiders. But the Tribesmen never read the script. They packed extra bodies into the defence, closed down opponents in a manner which was totally alien to their May 19 capitulation, won out midfield, and punished their opponents with some well-taken scores.

Team manager Mulholland made four changes to his side for this fixture and was forced into a fifth when defender Keith Kelly picked up an injury in the warm-up, making way for Sean Denvir.

The changes paid off, brilliantly, with Tomas Flynn putting in a powerful 70 minutes alongside Paul Conroy at midfield, the recalled Micheal Martin firing over three excellent points, and Johnny Duane revelling in a sweeper role in front of Armagh danger man Jamie Clarke, who never got into this game.

A beaming Mulholland admitted that the Tribesmen had learned some harsh lessons from their uninspiring displays against Tipp and Waterford, while he felt Armagh were vulnerable after their huge wins over Wicklow and Leitrim, in which they had scored ten goals.

“The frustrating thing is that we had a feeling all along that a performance like that was in us and after the Mayo game, the Tipperary game, and the Waterford game, we seemed to be getting more and more stick with every game we played. We thought that was in us and we showed it today. It was a fantastic team performance from everybody,” said the Galway manager.

Thanks to his day job in the family bookmakers shop, he was well aware that Galway were the highest priced team to win in all of the third round qualifiers at the weekend. But he felt that being written off before the ball was thrown in only provided added incentive to his young players.

They bought into his defensive strategy, with the likes of Conor Doherty and Martin putting in an extraordinary amount of energy to track back and help their defence in the extremely hot conditions. Once Danny Cummins fisted home the game’s only goal on 24 minutes, they were always in the driving seat.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.