O’Mahony picks up pieces for Galway

Jim O’Sullivan

For starters, it all but scuppered their chance of making the knock-out stages and even put them in slight danger of relegation. It remains to be seen if this was merely a blip or an indicator that the team doesn't have as much potential as promised.

Wexford's 5-12, including 4-5 from Mattie Forde, was the first time in a decade Galway have conceded more than three goals in a league game. And, to illustrate the fluctuating form of all of the counties in both of the first-division groupings, just one week after Limerick defeated Wexford by a four-points margin, they lost to Galway on a 4-11 to 1-10 scoreline.

Manager John O'Mahony admits it's difficult to identify 'the real' Galway: "Overall, we haven't been that happy. Particularly, we wouldn't be happy with our consistency within the League. There have been extenuating circumstances in the sense of injuries and so on. But, the last game, in particular, we weren't happy with. It was a very poor performance.''

Players and management have talked about it a lot since. At the same time, O'Mahony says that they haven't dwelt too much on the negative. "It was something we found difficult. You can always cope with a point or two defeat in any game, but we didn't see what was coming. We had performed reasonably well the week before against Laois in Portlaoise. But we were just destroyed against Wexford. It was something we had to address and we have done that. There's no point in talking about it until we see what the reaction is next Sunday.

"It's not a matter of a 'blame game' around the place. It's a matter of turning this thing around together.

"Everyone was frustrated. Now, everyone is trying to put the shoulder to the wheel to get it right.''

He says they haven't focused too much on the upcoming week-end games, not just their own against bottom-of-the-table Cavan in Breffni Park, but the various permutations other results could throw up. Neither has he ruled out the possibility of making the quarter-finals. "You'd never know what might happen if Wexford were beaten and you had a couple of other favourable results. Even though we did lose our scoring difference 'big-time' the last day, we had a very good difference going into the last game, so we're not that far behind any of the other teams in that respect.''

Elaborating on the 'extenuating circumstances' which account for their lowly position in the group, O'Mahony agrees that having to play most of their games without the Caltra players specifically Declan and Micheál Meehan has been a factor. They've also had to contend with injuries.

"The fact that games came on three weeks at a time which I don't disagree with meant we were adding [to the injury list] from week to week. Kevin Walsh and Gary Fahy, Damien Burke and others were unavailable to us. You weren't able to play a settled team for lots of reasons. And the Caltra dimension was definitely a factor.''

O'Mahony is prepared to concede that Sunday's game is 'probably' more of a relegation battle than a promotion battle, while pointing out at the same time that 'all kinds of things' could happen.

"What we're trying to do is concentrate on getting a performance together and then try and win the match. We'll see what happens after that.

"It would be nice to be involved. I don't want to totally write off our chances, but it looks like we won't be involved in play-offs.

"We'll kick a few balls in anger and see what happens ....''