Galway keep the conveyor belt rolling

The Galway minor hurling machine is rolling once more. Yesterday at Croke Park, Mattie Murphy guided another batch of Galway youngsters to success over Cork in the All-Ireland MHC semi-final and the victory pitches the Westerners into their fifth decider in six years against Kilkenny next month.

After relying on fortitude of character to bring them through against Wexford in the quarter-final, Galway expressed themselves here with a sparkling second-half patch that proved definitive in the overall outcome of the game.

“It's a nice feeling to come up to Croke Park and win,’’ Murphy reflected afterwards. “We were big underdogs today. That position suits us best. It was very tight at half-time. I was happy enough because I thought we hadn't played exceptionally well. We had got eight points from play and they'd got some from frees. It seemed the referee deemed our backs too rough and we weren't getting any frees ourselves. But I thought our backs defended heroically with our full-back line outstanding.

“It's nice to be in another final now. I don't know do I have the Midas touch with minors or anything. As soon as you bring that out into the open you're in trouble. But I think I'll retire after this year and hopefully keep my record intact. We'll turn up the day of the final now and see what happens against Kilkenny.”

Up until the 40th minute the sides had been jammed together on the scoreboard on 10 occasions as it stood 0-10 apiece. Then Galway broke free into open country and the complexion of the tie changed irrevocably.

A flurry of points from David Burke, Richard Cummins and Niall Burke nudged Galway in front before Cummins pounced for the gamebreaking score in the 45th minute. The Gort youngster dispossessed Cork defender William Egan on the right wing and raced into the corridor of space that opened up towards goal before finishing with aplomb.

The six-point margin that had now erupted between the teams proved irreversible for Cork. Though they battled gamely in the finale, that Galway goal meant that the deficit was always that bridge too far for them.

Galway corner-forward Richard Cummins was an ace figure from the start and his final total of 1-5 came after a day when he tormented the Cork backline. There was able support from the skilful duo of Niall Quinn and Niall Burke, while the Galway's defence was the bedrock of their team. They were aggressive and tenacious, epitomised by the displays of Gerard O'Halloran and Niall Donoghue.

Everything about this game in the first-half was tight. It was tight on the scoreboard from the word go, the most salient fact being the statistic that saw the teams level on eight occasions before they were locked together at 0-8 apiece at the midway mark.

The second-half maintained those tight trends and with 20 minutes left a gripping finale looked in store. Yet when the match was entering its final quarter Galway had moved 1-13 to 0-10 in front, courtesy of that lightning 1-3 blast. They could have been further ahead as well, only for Darren McCarthy to foil David Glennon with an outstanding save. By the 51st minute mark Galway had sailed onto greater things as they lead 1-16 to 0-12 but then Cork mounted a spirited late fightback.

Pádraig O'Shea struck two frees, substitute Jamie Coughlan flashed over a point, Simon O'Brien clipped another and when Walsh lofted a 60th minute point, the match became nervy at 1-16 to 0-17.

What Cork desperately required was a goal and their best chance was a shot from Coughlan that looked bound for the top corner, only for the flying intervention of Galway goalkeeper Fergal Flannery tipped it away. That was crucial as Galway tacked on two more points to secure the spoils and Cork's woes were compounded when defender William Egan was sent-off with a second yellow card in injury-time.

“We didn't come out of the traps at all,’’ disappointed Cork manager Cork manager Ger Manley conceded. Nothing went right for us at all. " We were scoring at will all year but it just didn't happen today. Galway looked that bit fresher as well. But we'd 24 of our panel in the last 10 days playing championship games. We were flat. You'd Ciaran Sheehan there and this was his third championship game in a week. He looked tired there and he is a very good player. But that's a small thing, they beat us by four points and I think that was a fair reflection in the end.

Scorers for Galway: R Cummins 1-5, N Burke, N Quinn, D Burke (0-1 '65, 0-1f) 0-3 each, B Burke 0-2, D Fox, D Glennon 0-1 each.

Scorers for Cork: P O'Shea 0-5 (0-4f, 0-1 '65), S O'Brien 0-4 (0-3f), S O'Farrell, A Walsh 0-2 each, D Roche, J O'Dwyer, P Honohan, J Coughlan 0-1 each.

GALWAY: F Flannery; D Connolly, R Burke, G O'Halloran; N Donoghue, D Cooney, R Foy; D Burke, D Fox; A Dolan, N Quinn, N Burke; R Cummins, B Burke, D Glennon. Subs: J Regan for Foy 43, B Flaherty for Fox 47, L Madden for Glennon 61, M Dolphin for B Burke 62.

CORK: D McCarthy; C Smith, D Rodgers, E Moynihan; A Walsh, P O'Shea, W Egan; S O'Farrell, D Roche; M Collins, C Sheehan, S O'Brien; J O'Dwyer, P Honohan, P Haughney. Subs: J Coughlan for Haughney 35, L O'Farrell for Honohan 47, B Collins for Smith 52, M Carroll for O'Dwyer 55.

Referee: Anthony Stapleton (Laois)