Galway - 5-13 Waterford 1-14 It bore all the appearances of Waterford being singled out as the fall guys for a smarting Galway in the wake of their defeat by Clare the previous weekend.
The home side, on their favourite Walsh Park pitch and in front of a 6,500 crowd, crumbled.
Galway could have operated on auto-pilot, with key front-runners Eugene Cloonan and Damien Hayes seemingly unable to do anything wrong. Hayes, in the right corner, and full forward Cloonan accounted for five goals and eight points. It was a match-winning performance on the double that shocked the Waterford manager, Justin McCarthy, whose succinct reaction was, "We got the goals against Dublin and they (Galway) got them today."
Waterford's troubles began with the toss of the coin by referee Willie Barrett. Galway won the choice of ends, an important factor, according to McCarthy.
Ollie Canning wisely decided to take first use of the gale. Although John Mullane opened the scoring against the odds with a massive point from the left wing in just 20 seconds, the Cloonan-Hayes duo were soon polishing off the work of their pumped up colleagues.
Even though Michael Walsh and Dave Bennett in midfield and a dashing Dan Shanahan strove manfully to stem the tide, Waterford were going under by half-time, trailing by 2-10 to 0-6.
"To be honest," said a delighted coach Conor Hayes, "their backs gave us room to work. We were intent on closing them down with a packed defence when they had the wind in the second half."
Predictably it was Waterford who opened the second-half scoring with a point, off a 65 by Bennett, but Eugene Cloonan was quick to respond with a point off a 45, a score that was a suitable prelude to the first of Damien Hayes's two goals.
The Portumna wizard latched on to a perfect delivery from Alan Kerins to give the unhappy Ian O'Reagan little chance with a low drive into the far corner.
Galway's tactic of pulling players back to pack the defence began to pay off.
"Aware of the fact that their forwards can prove match winners, we planned to make it difficult for them and besides Rory dropping back I also allowed Tony Óg (Regan) to fall back as well," explained manager Hayes.
Damien Hayes also responded well to management's half-time advice to "be patient" before scoring two superb goals, the second of which, coming in the 22nd minute of the half, was easily the highlight of the match.
He chased a ball towards the left corner and turned his marker Denis Coffey inside out before sending a searing shot from an acute angle into the far corner of the net.
The day's top scorer was Eugene Cloonan with 3-7 - four pointed frees and a 65. The brilliance of the Galway front runners was well matched by the industry of half backs Derick Hardiman, David Hayes and Fergal Moore. Their work was relentless behind a willing bunch of players and captain Ollie Canning put in an inspiring day's work at left corner-back. "Qualifying," said Hayes, "is in our own hands now. A win over Laois at home next Sunday should see us through."
Nobody will envy Laois their task with Galway in such dazzling form.
GALWAY: L Donoghue; D Joyce, D Cloonan, O Canning; D Hardiman, David Hayes, F Moore; F Healy, T Óg Regan; A Kearns (0-1), D Forde (0-3), D Tierney; Damien Hayes (2-1), E Cloonan (3-7, 0-4 frees, one 65), R Gantley (0-1). Subs: D Collins for Moore (44 mins); A Cullinane for Tierney (67 mins).
WATERFORD: I O'Reagan; D Coffey, D Prendergast, E Murphy; B Phelan, T Browne, L Lawlor; M Walsh (0-1), D Bennett (0-2, free and a 65); D Shanahan (0-2), S Ryan, J Kennedy; P O'Brien, P Flynn (1-7, 0-5 frees), J Mullane (0-2). Subs: E McGrath for M O'Brien (52 mins); J Murray for E Murphy (53 mins); B Wall for Kennedy (30 mins).
Referee: W Barrett (Tipperary).
