Youthful Galway get campaign off to cracking start

Date Published: {J}

Galway 1-15

Derry 1-11

FRANK FARRAGHER IN CELTIC PARK

GALWAY gave youth its fling by the banks of the Foyle on Sunday last and for the hardy band of maroon supporters who travelled north, the results were most refreshing as Alan Mulholland’s young guns delivered an unexpected Division 2 league victory.

Derry are quite a measure away from the elite core of teams with All-Ireland expectations in 2012 but they are no slouches either, and Galway can take a lot encouragement, not only from the victory, but from their performance and attitude as well.

Just before referee Marty Duffy threw in the ball, a funeral cortege pulled into the graveyard that overlooks Celtic Park and the Brandywell to provide a sombre backdrop – indeed there were nearly as many people at that ceremony as on the red seats of the impressive stand that spans the length of the pitch.

That sense of mourning was later reflected in the faces of the Derry supporters as they left the ground shortly before four o clock, and minutes before the final whistle sounded – by then, the home side had been roundly defeated. Galway had been a far livelier and innovative team over the 70 minutes – at times Derry just didn’t seem up to the pace of the game.

Necessity, as well as choice, dictated that Alan Mulholland picked a young team for the first outing of the league campaign and realistically in the run-up to this match, the expectations were limited to a decent performance . . . however as the first half unfolded, it became obvious that Galway were in with a real chance of extracting a result from this match. There was more hope in the first 25 minutes of this match than in Galway’s entire 2011 season.

Galway did start a bit tentatively, they gave away a handy enough goal, and missed some early second-half chances that later allowed Derry close the gap to one point, but significantly, when adversity stared them in the eye, they bounced back with renewed vigour each time.

A stomach bug problem meant that Caherlistrane’s Cormac Bane had to be withdrawn from the starting line-up with Nicky Joyce making a welcome return to action – the Killererin clubman took 20 minutes or so to re-tune to the pace of inter-county football, but when he did, the results were impressive with the target struck on five occasions.

One of the features of Galway’s play was the bubbly nature of their forward enterprise. As well as Nicky Joyce, Danny Cummins and Michael Martin were lively in the corners; Paul Conroy put in a very productive first half on the ‘40’, while Mark Hehir also struck the ball with great confidence.

Derry had the ‘reprieved’ James Conway restored to midfield following his McKenna Cup red card against Tyrone and there were fears, after the opening exchanges, that the home side might have it their own way in this sector, but gradually the Galway pair of Fionntán Ó Curraoin and Thomas Flynn settled into the swing of the game – by the time the interval whistle sounded, Galway had assumed superiority in this sector.

In attack, Derry’s main threats came from centre forward Mark Lynch and corner forward Cailean O’Boyle but Colin Forde, Finian Hanley and Jonathan Duane stuck doggedly to their tasks, while on the flanks, Gareth Bradshaw and Gary O’Donnell, counter-attacked with great gusto.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.