Forwards give Galway win over Cork

Galway 3-13 Cork 1-15

Galway took the edge over Division One title favourites Cork, as a brace of goals from corner forward Alan Kerins either side of the break, allied to a 55th minute effort from top scorer Eugene Cloonan saw the Tribesmen 3-13 to 1-15 winners at Pearse Stadium.

In what was a slow bruising start, which saw Portumna forward Damien Hayes yellow carded for a heavy challenge on Cork defender Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Fergal Healy opened the scoring after two minutes.

Cloonan notched a 9th minute free, which was followed by Cork scores from a Paul Tierney sideline and a John Gardiner ’65.

Athenry forward Cloonan, who was a forced off with a blood injury late in the first half, saw his effort from play six minutes later cancelled by a Jonathan O’Callaghan free and Brendan Lombard’s 30-metre lob for a 0-04 to 0-03 Cork lead.

The game sprung into life with two quick fire goals on 20 and 24 minutes.

A long searching ball from Derek Hardiman saw the ball eventually break free for Kerins and he pulled successfully at the second attempt to the Rebels’ net.

At the other end, Joe Deane scrambled a reply past Liam Donoghue to leave a point between them.

The half was to end in the visitors’ favour as despite Kerins levelling it up at 1-05 apiece on the half hour, scores from Niall McCarthy, impressive on Hardiman, Lombard and Gardiner, after good work from Tierney saw Cork three in front at the break.

Galway scuppered six shots wide of the Cork uprights in the first half but forced the play after the restart, drawing the game up with a run of a Cloonan free, after forty seconds, and two points from play from David Forde and Hayes.

Cloonan had a 20-metre goal attempt stopped on the line by Donal Og Cusack on 45 minutes, but Galway had just six minutes to wait for their second goal, as Hardiman got the better of McCarthy to steer the ball into Alan Kerins’ path and he tipped the ball over the encroaching Og Cusack to the empty Cork net for an impish score.

Tierney and O’Callaghan brought Cork back level at 1-11 to 2-08, but Cloonan struck at a vital stage with 15 minutes remaining to send Galway into the final minutes with a three-point advantage.

With Cork losing out in midfield and Mark Prendergast seeing yellow, points from Healy, Cloonan, who finished with 1-06, and Hayes saw Galway 3-13 to 1-14 into injury time.

O’Callaghan hit a fifth point on 71 minutes but the Cork fire was finally distinguished, thirty seconds from time, when Tom Kenny’s run forward saw McCarthy blast a goal chance wide.