Walsh expands horizon

It was remarked upon several times on Friday afternoon, when over 300 people packed into a hotel at €85 a head for a fundraising lunch for the Galway footballers, that these times were reminiscent of 1998 when the Tribesmen came from nowhere to win the All-Ireland title.

The infusion of successful young talent and an emphatic opening round win over Roscommon had seen optimism levels soar in Galway in recent times but by Saturday night in Salthill they were all deflated.

The irony that the shock defeat was masterminded by Kevin Walsh, the inspirational midfielder who led the Tribesmen to that ’98 success, will not be lost on Galway supporters.

This was a huge win for Walsh. He brought success initially to Sligo when he took charge four years ago but the last two seasons were a nightmare after they lost the Connacht final to Roscommon.

But they struck gold twice in the second half at Pearse Stadium on Saturday night to deservedly advance to the Connacht final and put past failings behind them.

“There’s nothing worse than coming off and knowing you haven’t performed. That’s the way we’re taking it at the moment. Hopefully there’s another one there,” said Walsh.

Sligo have only ever won three Connacht finals — all of them by a point — and Walsh knows they will have an uphill battle if Mayo, as expected, provide the opposition on July 15 but that is when the hurt of defeat two years ago could be vital to them.

Walsh said: “The approach will be different on the basis that hopefully we’ve learned a few lessons. Having said that, it’s every game on its own.

“If Mayo beat Leitrim, we’re heading into the lion’s den.

“Every game we go out, we intend to have a performance. The gods can be against you different times, there’s lots of stuff out of your control that stop you getting over the line. The way we look at it is we go out and if we do what we do as good as we can do it, that’s it.”

Galway boss Alan Mulholland, a former colleague of Walsh’s from an All-Ireland minor-winning team in 1986, admitted it will be difficult regrouping for the qualifiers but he acknowledged the better team won.

“The dressing room is really deflated in there. We will take a while to bounce back,” said Mulholland.

“The good news is that we have a few weeks to just let the dust settle on this. They will go back to their clubs and play a few games for the next couple of weeks. We will be in a different headspace in a few weeks.

“We have got to do ourselves justice. There is no point in training from October to now and then give up for the next couple of weeks. We are going to try regroup in the next couple of weeks and give this a lash and see where that takes us.”

Mulholland lamented that Galway did not build up a bigger lead in the opening half when they had the wind. They had to wait 16 minutes for their first score from play, with Sean Armstrong’s effort putting them 0-5 to 0-1 ahead, and you felt another score or two and they would be out of sight.

But Sligo pulled their half-forward line out to crowd midfield and the inside line of David Kelly — drafted in before the start for his first game since February — Adrian Marren and Mark Breheny revelled in the open space.

Galway led by 0-9 to 0-5 at the break, but only managed two points from play in contrast to all five Sligo scores coming from open play.

“But they had us read fairly well, they frustrated us, they bottled us up, they did foul us a lot,” noted Mulholland.

Sligo enjoyed a great start to the second half and they hit four points in succession to draw level by the 45th minute, with Marren getting two and impressive midfielder Shane McManus and Kelly also finding the range.

Galway full-forward Paul Conroy, who got three second-half points, exchanged scores with Alan Costello but then the game turned when wing-back Paul McGovern was hauled down by Finian Hanley and Marren slotted the penalty into the bottom right corner after 54 minutes to go in front for the first time.

Galway, who lost skipper Hanley to a shoulder injury, introduced Michael Meehan and Padraic Joyce but couldn’t get ball into them and, while they got the margin back to down to a point, impressive newcomer Pat Hughes doubled Sligo’s lead in the 65th minute.

Marren then wrapped it all up when he found the net for the second time form a Costello pass which sailed over the head of replacement full-back Colin Forde.

Scorers for Sligo: A Marren 2-6 (1-0 pen, 1f, 1 45), A Costello 0-3 (1f), D Kelly 0-2, M Breheny, S McManus, P Hughes 0-1 each.

Scorers for Galway: M Hehir 0-7 (6f), G Sice (3f), P Conroy 0-3 each, S Armstrong, M Meehan 0-1 each.

Subs for Sligo: T Taylor for Mullen, (45), D May for Hughes (70), J Davy for McGovern (70).

Subs for Galway: M Meehan for Flynn (42), G Sweeney for Kelly (46), P Joyce for Burke (53), C Forde for Hanley (57).

Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois).