Early signals looking goodfor Galway

Galway 2-13 Meath 1-12: Allianz Footbal League Division 2: Galway’s exile from the top flight in the league is now in its fourth year but with four of their games at home this season and derby away ties to Roscommon and Westmeath also on the agenda, there is growing optimism that they are in a good position for promotion.

That notion was given genuine substance in the spring sunshine at Pearse Stadium in Salthill yesterday as Kevin Walsh’s first league game in charge saw them dismantle the challenge of a youthful Meath side.

This was an encounter Galway just had to win if they are to mount a promotion challenge and there were concerns when Meath twice hauled back big leads.

But the Royals lacked punch up front and their lack of scoring threat proved costly in the end and allowed a Galway side, even without the Corofin contingent, regroup and wrap up an invaluable win.

Walsh said that getting promoted is one of Galway’s targets but the double All-Ireland winner sees a bigger picture as well and knows they just have to get consistency.

“It’s important for us to get a team playing so that every single time we play, we’re competitive. Of course we want to get back to Division 1 but at the end of the day we need to make sure that players know what they’re doing, they have to work hard together and the results will take care of themselves.”

“It is important to win the home games but it’s important also to have a performance whether we’re winners or not. I don’t think we went behind at any stage which was important and when Meath did come back at us, we kicked on again,” he said.

Meath manager Mick O’Dowd, who must regroup to take on neighbours Kildare next Saturday night when both will be going for their first league points, didn’t mince his words when summing up a display which yielded just one point in the opening 24 minutes and they didn’t get their first from play until seven minutes from the break.

“It was a shocking performance. We went 20 minutes without scoring after winning a free in the first minute. That’s not acceptable.”

“I’m at a bit of a loss because we prepared well for the last thirteen weeks. We came down the night before and we thought we were ready to put in a performance like that is disappointing,” said O’Dowd.

Galway laid the foundation for victory with a strong opening quarter and led by 1-5 to 0-1 after just 14 minutes, with Danny Cumming bringing his haul to 1-2 he finished a good passing movement involving Tom Flynn, Paul Varley and Sean Denvir.

Galway should have pushed on from there but it was Meath who reacted better and hit 0-4 without reply, with Mickey Newman pointed a couple of frees, goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke landing a 45 and wing-back Bryan Menton getting their only opening half point from play.

Galway went 23 minutes after their goal before getting their next score, with Adrian Varley’s effort leaving them 1-6 to 0-5 in front at the break.

Galway, winning most of the 50-50 balls around the middle, started the second-half with points from Shane Walsh and Cummins and after O’Rourke, who saved superbly from Eddie Hoare, and Paul Varley exchanged points, Meath enjoyed their best spell when they got four points in a row to get within two of Galway.

They should, in fact have been level, but Newman blasted over with just goalkeeper Brian O’Donoghue to beat and that was as near as they got.

Midfielder Fiontan Ó Curraoin pointed from distance and a couple of points from Shane Walsh was followed by the decisive goal from him, when he finished well after a move involving Hoare and Patrick Sweeney.

Galway were eight points up with four minutes left before Meath got a consolation goal from Jamie Queeney in the dying moments.

Scorers for Galway: S Walsh 1-3 (1f); D Cummins 1-3; E Hoare 0-2 (1f); P Varley 0-2; F Ó Curraoin 0-1, S Denvir 0-1, A Varley 0-1 .

Scorers for Meath: J Queeney 1-0; M Newman 0-5 (4f); P O’Rourke 0-3 (2f, 1 ‘45); S Bray 0-2; B Menton 0-1, G Reilly 0-1.

GALWAY: B O’Donoghue; D O’Neill, C Forde, C Sweeney; P Varley, G Bradshaw, G O’Donnell; F Ó Curraoin, T Flynn; E Tierney, E Hoare, S Denvir; D Cummins, A Varley, S Walsh.

Subs: P Sweeney for A Varley (58), M Martin for Hoare (65), C Mulryan for Cummins (68), D Kyne for P Varley (BC, 69).

MEATH: P O’Rourke; D Tobin, C McGill, M Burke; P Harnan, D Keogan, B Menton; H Rooney, A Flanagan; G Reilly, S Bray, A Tormey; B McMahon, M Newman, J Wallace.

Subs: D Carroll for McMahon (h-t), J Queeney for Tormey (BC, 49), D Dalton for Harnan (63), S Tobin for Wallace (63), C McConnell for D Tobin (66).

Referee: P O’Sullivan (Kerry).