Pádraig can rejoice after superb display for Tribesmen

Galway 2-18 Tyrone 1-19

With each passing week, Galway are looking more like the most viable challengers to take Tyrone’s crown.

Pádraig Joyce resembles the player he once was. Over the two games, he scored 1-13. He embellished his display with a goal of rare beauty 12 minutes into the game. A long ball from his brother Tommy fell into his chest as he managed to escape the attentions of Conor Gormley.

Bearing down on Pascal McConnell, he glossed his finish with a touch of class, selling the keeper a sublime dummy. That strike fired Galway into a 2-3 to 0-3 lead as the All-Ireland champions were being annihilated in midfield. Kevin Hughes looked like a little boy lost up against Joe Bergin, the big Mountbellew midfielder, at one stage, catching five straight kick-outs cleanly. The amount of possession gained by Bergin and Tommy Joyce, whose work-rate again was immense, ensured Galway spent the opening quarter of an hour carving out chances.

They didn’t take them all. In the first seven minutes alone, Galway hit five wides and ended the half with four more. But they were scoring enough. Michael Donnellan cut through the Tyrone defence and buried the ball past McConnell in the 4th minute. Michael Meehan, whom Ryan McMenamin will have nightmares about, nailed a beauty of a score from 45 yards in the 11th minute.

As Tommy Joyce was collecting everything that broke or Bergin didn’t catch, Tyrone simply couldn’t mount an attack. They managed to stay in touch through the accurate boot of Mark Harte, but every time they did so Galway would respond with a score of their own. By the interval, it was 2-9 to 0-7 and the game looked over. And it may have been had McConnell not saved Derek Savage’s meek penalty moments before the break.

Some people were wondering if they should beat the traffic when Tommy Joyce started the second half with a fine score. Trailing by nine points, Tyrone suddenly woke up around the middle of the field. Brian Dooher had a quiet first half, but he was sensational in the second, and his performance, as it so often does, mirrored his team. The ineffectual Hughes was sacrificed for Collie Holmes, allowing Cavanagh to track Bergin. The move yielded serious results. Bergin now had to concentrate on defensive duties, but Cavanagh was operating on a different plane. Superb work from Enda McGinley saw the midfielder bursting through to bury the ball past Alan Keane. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Tyrone were trailing Galway, 2-10 to 1-10, and had wasted four decent scoring opportunities.

They didn’t have to wait long to get their noses in front. A couple of Harte frees levelled matters, before Dooher drilled a hole in the Galway defence, and scored an amazing, curling point off the outside of his left boot to put Tyrone ahead, 1-14 to 2-10.

There was 12 minutes left and it was all about character. Michael Donnellan equalised with a free before Harte scored another. Pádraig Joyce got a free, Joe McMahon, who made such a difference when he came on at wing back, shot up the field and tapped the ball over. It was left to Joyce’s trickery to bring the game into extra-time, which he did. Extra-time was not something Mickey Harte would have wanted and for much of the first period, it showed in his players.

But Owen Mulligan and Colm McCullagh did enough to level matters heading into the second period. The latter’s beautiful lofted point would be Tyrone’s last until Harte tapped over a free with time almost up.

Galway wanted this more, as shown by Michael Donnellan’s excellent score near the end. O’Mahony’s team need a national final, they need games to further develop Paul Clancy at centre-back and erase any question marks about their inconsistency.

Scorers: Galway: P Joyce (1-6, 3 frees), M Donnellan (1-3), T Joyce (0-3), M Meehan, J Devane (0-2 each) S De Poar, N Joyce (0-1 each) Tyrone: M Harte (0-9, 8 frees), S Cavanagh (1-1), B Dooher (0-3), E Mulligan, C McCullagh (0-2 each), E McGinley, J McMahon (0-1 each)

GALWAY: A Keane; M Comer, G Fahey, K Fitzgerald, D Meehan, P Clancy, S De Poar; J Bergin, S O’Domhaill; D Savage, M Donnellan, J Devane, M Meehan, P Joyce, T Joyce. Subs N Joyce for Savage (55 mins), T Meehan for Devane (89 mins)

TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Gormley, C Gourley, B Donnelly, G Devlin, P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh; B Dooher, B McGuigan, O Mulligan, M Harte, E McGinley, C McCullagh Subs J McMahon for Donnelly (27 mins), C Holmes for Hughes (h-t), D Carlin for Gormely (70 mins)

Referee: M Collins(Cork).