Galway 2-9 Sligo 1-10:COULD FÁILTE Ireland boost flagging tourism numbers with winter packages aimed at wealthy foreigners and based on the delights of the FBD League?
Almost certainly not, but the north Sligo coastline has an undeniable beauty in early January and the two teams gave their all for the hardy souls who turned out on a bracing day to support the county boys on their first day out.
Galway won, but the result counts for little in these matters – of graver concern to Kevin Walsh was the sight of the redoubtable Noel McGuire being helped off the field wearing an ice pack around his foot after a challenge in the last minute of the game.
By then, new Galway manager Tomás Ó Flatharta had registered his first competitive win with the maroon side. It was a performance that told him little he didn’t already know before he came here – Galway are big and athletic.
They sometimes overcomplicate things. When Seán Armstrong is given half a chance, he can kill teams stone dead. Galway teams without Pádraic Joyce look incomplete. Mattie Clancy is incapable of putting in a lazy afternoon.
Yesterday, among the ubiquitous “Reduced To Sell” signs posted on the Sligo-Ballina road were hastily sketched sign posts guiding strangers to the local pitch.
In the press box during the match, among the general viewpoints aired was that the pitch held up well (it did; virtually soft when most fields in Ireland seemed to be frozen); that hopping the ball was a lottery (and one that offered a poor return) that the carrot cake was delicious (it truly was); that young Pat Hughes was impressive at wing forward for Sligo (he clipped two excellent second-half points and looking useful both in the air and general play) and that the crowd was pretty decent (one steward estimated that there were 300 cars either in or around the ground).
As Sligo set to work with the briskness and urgency that has defined their play under Walsh, the thought must have struck many of their supporters that the team are hell-bent on returning to the high point of last season – a Connacht final in which they were raging hot favourites.
Their early play featured clever ball retention and an attacking game that begins deep in defence.
Aided by the masterful display of place-kicking by David Maye, they took the game to Galway and burst into a 1-4 to 0-2 in the 26th minute when Tony Taylor struck a fine goal after racing onto a nicely-lobbed pass from Aiden Marren.
Up 1-5 to 0-2 at the break, everything was going swimmingly.
“In the first half, there was quite a strong wind and it was actually quite hard to play into that sun. But we played more direct football in the second half and it paid off for us,” said Ó Flatharta.
In fact, they laid siege to the Sligo full-back line. Cillian de Paor made an imposing target man while Armstrong was pure quicksilver. There was an element of fortune to Galway’s first goal: Sligo were whistled for fouling the ball when Harrison was carrying from defence and from the quick free Armstrong beat Jason Farrell after the goalkeeper blocked his original shot.
That score was in the 32nd minute but it still seemed as if Sligo had control of the match.
They responded with two swift points from Maye and Hughes.
But Armstrong’s next point announced a succession of scores from the visitors, all coming off high ball dropped down on the Sligo backs. De Paor pointed to leave it at 1-8 to 1-5 and then Armstrong stood back and watched the Sligo men contest another dropping ball before coolly slotting it home when the ball fell his way.
When Clancy rewarded himself with a well-struck point for all his usual graft, the visitors had turned the match around, leading 2-9 to 1-8.
It was a stark turnaround in just over nine minutes. Once they established control, Galway did a good job of seeing out the game and the last 10 minutes consisted mainly of identifying the substitutes as they entered the arena.
GALWAY: E Ó Conghaile; K McGrath, F Hanley, A Glynn; D Reilly, B Coleman, G Sice; E Hoare (0-1), G O’Donnell; M Clancy (0-1), C De Paor (0-2), C Healy; B Flaherty, S Armstrong (2-3), J Ryan (0-2, one free). Subs: M O’Kelly for Flaherty (20 mins), F Ó Carain for C Healy, A Burke for D Reilly (56 mins), C Ó Cualain for E Hoare (59 mins).
SLIGO: J Farrell; C Harrison, C Davey, N Ewing; P McGovern, N McGuire, B O’Boyle; T Taylor (1-0), B Egan; A Costello (0-1 free), F Quinn (0-1), P Hughes (0-2); D Maye (0-6, 5 frees), J Hynes, A Marren. Subs: S Davey for A Marren (52 mins), D Rooney for S Boyle (57 mins), M Brehony for A Costello (58 mins), M Quinn for N McGuire (60 mins inj.).
Referee: L Devenney (Mayo).
