Relief for Hayes as Galway pick up first points in poor clash

Galway 3-12 Laois 0-5

It took until the 68th minute before a Laois forward scored, wing-forward Enda Meagher ending that particular ignominy. By the break, Galway led 2-4 to 0-2, with midfielder James Young scoring both Laois points. On the restart, free-taker Young scored another two, before Meagher saved the blushes of an embarrassingly inept Laois forward sextet.

Little wonder then that manager Dinny Cahill was a tad subdued afterwards. “That was the first time the inside line played together this year and it is the same with Cathal Brophy in the half-forward line. That’s four of the forwards playing together for the first time. It’s very hard to put it together the first time out; we’d be hoping that once we have a few games under our belt, and once we get a bit of hurling done in training, after the clock changes, we’ll get better. You can’t improve your hurling training in the dark of night.”