NHL Division One B/Galway 3-11 Tipperary 0-12: Galway blazed three goals past a dismal Tipperary at Thurles yesterday to reinvigorate their campaign for a place in the qualifying stages.
Having lost their two opening games, Galway knew nothing less than victory would keep them in the picture. They achieved this with surprising ease against a Tipperary side that, in the words of their manager, Babs Keating, were "dead only to wash them".
Tipp too needed a win but they showed little urgency, and Keating readily admitted afterwards, "We have headaches."
Yet Tipp did well early on and were setting the pace at 0-4 to 0-3 after 17 minutes.
Then Galway took control. A well-worked move in the 20th minute ended with Ger Farragher blasting the ball to the net.
Tipperary battled on but disaster struck in the 34th minute as goalkeeper Brendan Cummins let a softish David Tierney shot skid off his stick into the net.
An interval lead of 2-6 to 0-7 gave Galway a cushion that was never seriously threatened in the second half.
The introduction of All Star Eoin Kelly in the last quarter improved Tipperary's scoring power but six minutes from the end Richie Murray sealed Galway's win when he exploited a misunderstanding between Cummins and his full back Philip Maher to fire home Galway's third goal.
It was a win that delighted the Galway manager, Conor Hayes, who is looking forward to his side's crucial clash with Kilkenny next Sunday. Victory there would put them into the quarter-finals of the competition.
Hayes had plenty of reason to be happy, particularly the displays of man-of-the-match David Tierney, Ger Farragher, Conor Dervan, Damien Joyce and Richie Murray. For good measure, he has players from the All-Ireland club champions, Portumna, to strengthen his squad.
No such relief for Keating, who now must hope for a win over Laois, and a Kilkenny victory over Galway, to keep his hopes alive. On a bad day, only Philip Maher, Colin Morrissey, Ger O'Grady, Eamon Corcoran and sub Eoin Kelly impressed.
GALWAY: L Donoghue; D Joyce, T Regan, G Mahon; D Hardiman, C Dervan, D Collins; F Healy (0-1), S Kavanagh; D Tierney (1-2), D Forde (0-1), R Murray (1-2); G Farragher (1-2), E Cloonan (0-2), N Healy (0-1). Subs: A Callanan for Cloonan, D Hayes for Kavanagh, K Brady for Healy.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; P Curran, P Maher, M Ryan; E Corcoran, C O'Mahoney (0-2), P Kelly (0-1); C Morrissey, L England; S McGrath, J Devane (0-1), G O'Grady; J O'Brien (0-1), D Fanning (0-1), D Egan (0-3). Subs: D McGrath for England, E Kelly (0-3) for Egan, B Dunne for S McGrath, K Dunne for J O'Brien.
Referee: D Kirwin (Cork).
