Galway goals flow again, but...

The message is out now — if it’s scores you want, go and watch Galway.

A considerable total of 17 goals and 69 points have been converted in their opening two games of the Leinster championship.

Yet yesterday’s latest score-fest will give manager Anthony Cunningham plenty to ponder.

While they netted five times for the second game in succession following the 10-point win over Westmeath earlier this month, they also haemorrhaged a glut at the other end. Two of them — Derek Molloy and Shane Dooley’s second — may have come at a time in the second-half when Galway hardly needed to be worrying, given the affair was all but over as a contest.

Conceding 21 points in total for the second time this month, Galway have issues at the back but for now their attack are more than capable of masking them.

However, there’s no denying that Galway will lose later this summer if they intend making every game a shootout.

As Waterford learned to their cost in the early to mid-Noughties, cavalier hurling may garner plenty of fans but little in the way of silverware.

Cunningham will at least be pleased that his forward line know where the posts are. The nets too.

Also, Joe Canning finished with 0-11 to his account but there wasn’t that usual over-reliance on him to come up trumps.

Galway started this Leinster semi-final with an incredible verve that saw Conor Cooney fleece David Kenny for a brace of goals within seconds of each other.

The first came from a Damien Hayes delivery, which the young St Thomas man eventually won and struck past James Dempsey after Kenny fumbled.

A reeling Kenny, usually an able defender, was caught out yet again moments afterwards when Cooney rounded him and coolly tapped the ball past the advancing Offaly goalkeeper.

Offaly might have believed the crisis was averted when Dooley capitalised on a slack James Skehill clearance to find a corner of the empty net.

But Galway’s third goal in the 10th minute rocked them once more, although, there was a question over its legitimacy, David Burke rushing in on Dempsey with his feet after the goalkeeper had stopped a Cyril Donnellan shot.

There was also a glaring umpire mistake a couple of minutes earlier when Donnellan was awarded a point which had clearly gone wide of the right-hand post.

Despite these setbacks, Offaly gathered themselves and, largely thanks to Dooley’s marksmanship, had closed a six-point gap to one by the 17th minute.

Galway had only one point to their names by that stage but then hit four on the bounce, the likes of Niall Burke and Donnellan maximising the team’s dominance from puckouts.

They added another four without reply following a Dooley point, Iarla Tannian opening that sequence after Kenny had been intercepted.

Hayes added one either side of a Joe Canning free before Dooley narrowed the margin to six points with a couple.

A fantastic Colin Egan score in the 32nd minute had Offaly supporters believing the tide was turning their way.

But then Canning swatted over a free and a fourth Galway goal, Hayes expertly gathering a David Burke through stick-pass and smashing the ball to the net.

Canning, with his first from play, ended the first-half scoring to make it 4-11 to 1-10 in Galway’s favour, a scoreline most Championship hurling games would be happy to boast at full time.

Galway weren’t satisfied, though, and scored the opening five points of the second-half, four of them from Canning (three 65s and a free).

With that, any hope of Offaly staging a comeback dissipated. Six minutes in, two thirds of their full-back line had been replaced.

The fizz soon disappeared from the game, as exemplified by the muted reaction to an excellent 58th minute goal from substitute Derek Molloy.

Even at that, the score failed to reduce Offaly’s deficit to a single digit although scores from Dooley and Joe Bergin brought it back to 10.

A second Dooley goal came in the 64th minute from a free which appeared to deflect off a Galway defender.

It reduced the yawning gap to nine but Galway saw out the game with panache and substitute Davy Glennon followed up three points from James Regan, David Burke and Canning with a fifth goal in the final minute of normal time.

Scorers for Galway: J Canning 0-11 (5 frees, 4 65s); C Cooney 2-0; D Hayes 1-3; C Donnellan 0-3; D Burke 1-1; D Glennon 1-0; I Tannian 0-2; N Burke, T Harnan 0-1 each.

Scorers for Offaly: J Dooley 2-7 (1-5 frees, 1 65); D Molloy 1-1; C Mahon, C Egan, J Bergin 0-2 each; D Morkan 0-1.

Subs for Galway: P Gordon for Donohue (31), J Glynn for N Burke (50), J Regan for C Cooney (55), T Harnan for Tannian (60), D Glennon for Donnellan (64).

Subs for Offaly: C Hernon for Egan (temp 33-35), D Molloy for Franks (h-t), C McDonald for Kenny (41), S Ryan for Carroll (49), Hernon for Mahon (55).

Referee: Cathal McAllister (Cork).