Galway 2-14
Armagh 1-13
Armagh again paid the price for a dreadful start when Galway hit them for two goals in the opening minutes at Tuam Stadium yesterday.
While Armagh eventually hauled back the deficit, it was Galway who finished strongly to secure the win.
This gives them a good chance of avoiding relegation, although manager Alan Mulholland stressed they still needed something from their trip to Clones next weekend to take on the Ulster champions.
“We need something from the Monaghan game to make sure we stay in the division,” he said. “The way we’ve gone over the last three games shows that we’re building and we’re improving slightly so that’s the plan going into the championship.”
Paul Grimley’s championship plans may need some altering. His defence was dismantled by a two-man Galway full-forward line and by half-time he had replaced half of his defenders.
“I wouldn’t necessarily view that as a purely defensive problem,” he said. “It starts from way out the field. It’s a thing we work out in training but it was annoying that Galway could sail through and get two goals so easy and every time we got within three points in the first half they put another point of distance between us . . . It’s been a trend in this league for us, we give teams a golden start.”
Garreth Bradshaw tore the Armagh defence apart with an early surge which ended with Eddie Hoard blasting to the net after three minutes. A minute later debutant Michael Lundy burst through and set up Michael Martin who finished low to the bottom left corner.
Tony Kernan, Eugene McVerry and Rory Grugan did most to keep Armagh in the game, but they still trailed by 2-8 to 0-9 at the interval despite having had wind advantage.
Armagh improved immeasurably after the restart and Grugan was unlucky to be denied a goal.
Things took a dip when Gary McCooey was sent off with a black card for a high tackle, having earlier been booked. Yet Armagh continued to dominate, and a cracking goal from Kernan after 50 minutes brought them back into contention.
Galway managed just two points in half an hour with the wind behind them and Armagh looked set to take the points when Kevin Dyas got his third point. Finian Moriarty levelled the match six minutes from time.
But Fiontán Ó Curraoin got on top again in midfield for Galway, who secured victory with late points from James Kavanagh, Paul Conroy, Mike Farragher and Thomas Flynn.
GALWAY: T Healy; K Kelly, F Hanley, D O'Neill; G Bradshaw, G O'Donnell, P Varley; F Ó Curraoin, T Flynn (0-1); M Lundy, E Hoare (1-1), J Kavanagh (0-2); M Martin (1-1), P Conroy (0-3), S Armstrong (0-5, 0-4 frees, 0-1 '45). Subs: C Mulryan for Hanley (57 mins), M Farragher (0-1) for Lundy (60 mins), D Cummins for Martin (64 mins), D O'Connell for Kavanagh (69 mins).
ARMAGH: P McEvoy; A Mallon, A Findon, M Murray; M Shields, K Toner, R Grugan (0-2); S Harold, P O'Neill; C Rafferty, K Dyas (0-3), E McVerry (0-2); J Clarke (0-1, 0-1 free), T Kernan (1-3, 0-2 frees), K Carragher. Subs: G McCooey for O'Neill (9m), F Moriarty (0-1) for Shields (26m), O MacÍomhair for Murray (30m), A Kernan (0-1) for Grugan (41m), B Mallon for MacÍomhair (60m).
Referee: Derek Fahy (Longford).
