Fiery first half ensures Galway win

Galway 1-8 Kildare 1-6, Pearse Stadium

Cormac Bane and Nicky Joyce shot 1-5 between them as Galway won their second successive match in NFL Division 1B, holding off a late rally from Kildare at Pearse Stadium.

A strong first-half display was effectively enough for Peter Ford's men to triumph against a Lilywhites side that had won two and drawn one of their previous three league games.

Padraig Joyce showed he still has plenty to offer the Galway attack. The Killererin maestro almost single-handedly beat Armagh two weeks ago and he was up to his old tricks again today, playing in his cousin Nicky Joyce for a galvanising seventh-minute goal.

Kildare never truly played to their potential, but just three minutes after Joyce's strike they grabbed a goal of their own through Murt Donnelly.

He pounced on a loose ball after Galway keeper Paul Doherty had let a ball in from the left slip through his grasp.

Kildare's Killian Brennan had earlier pointed, as has Bane at the other end, but Donnelly's goal proved to be the visitors' last score of the first half.

Bane took his tally to three points, while the Joyces and former Footballer of the Year Ja Fallon, who is another man rediscovering his old form, all pointed as Galway went 1-7 to 1-1 before the break.

Their advantage could and perhaps should have been more. Nicky Joyce could have had a hat-trick of goals had he been in dead-eye form, and Michael Comer and Derek Savage were also wayward with efforts when they were afforded a glimpse of Enda Murphy's goal.

Just as Kildare had struggled for much of the first half, Bane's fourth point from play turned out to be the Tribesmen's only score of the second period as they took their foot off the gas and Kildare came back strongly.

Kildare's chances of winning would have increased had Padraig Brennan not cracked his 48th-minute penalty attempt off the crossbar and over for a point. Andrew McLoughlin had been brought down for the penalty award.

Points from John Doyle, Padraig O'Neill and substitutes Tadhg Fennin, who almost won a second penalty chance, and Derek McCormack saw Kildare finish with a disappointing tally of 1-6.