Galway forced to win it twice against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park
LATE SHOW: Galway manager Micheál Donoghue celebrates at the final whistle. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
A game Galway had won, all but let slip, and then pocketed for a second time.
Derek Lyng’s Kilkenny side was eight points down in this Division 1A game near the end of the third quarter only to score 1-7 without reply over the next 14 minutes to reclaim the lead and seemingly set them up for another two league points.
Galway could still have taken plenty from the first 40-plus minutes of those round two tie had that been that, but so much of it would have been diluted by that last half-hour or so when they went 23 minutes without a score.
They looked a beaten docket with the clock about to find the red but three frees from Jason Flynn and a brilliant capper from Conor Whelan proved to be the eventual winning of a game for a side that travelled to the southeast under such a cloud.
Soundly beaten by Tipp in Salthill last week, Micheal Donoghue injected some badly-needed experience into that experimental side here with Darren Morrissey, Padraic Mannion, Gavin Lee and Conor Cooney back in and Daithi Burke and Flynn among the subs.
Kilkenny were still without the likes of Eoin Murphy, Adrian Mullen, Tommy Walsh, John Donnelly and TJ Reid but they fared perfectly well on week one by claiming a first win against All-Ireland champions Clare in Ennis.
Both these two fell behind early on the first weekend but this one was more nip and tuck in the first quarter before Galway began to pull away and build a lead that would stand at four points at the interval on a calm and dry day but a heavy pitch.
The returning Mannion and was proving to be a thorn in the side of the Kilkenny attack, so too Lee alongside him. That pair didn’t just display the defensive arts, they contributed four points from play in the opening period alone, five across the afternoon.
Kilkenny’s execution was letting them down too often in the advanced third and it took a superb five-point haul from play from Martin Keoghan in the initial 35 minutes just to keep them in touch with the visitors.
Conor Cooney was creating trouble at the other end while Declan McLoughlin, a late inclusion for Oisin Lohan, was making himself dangerous. It was his goal just three minutes in that proved such a settler for Galway.
Whelan and John Fleming both had half-chances of another denied by stiff defending midway through the half, and Kilkenny suffered a similar fate minutes later when Luke Hogan failed to connect with a ground shot and Gearoid Dunne zipped a shot wide.
Galway were having much the better of it.
Tom Monaghan’s three points from the middle third was just the cherry on top of a very good half of hurling for him and Galway were leading by doubles scores as late as the half-hour mark when it stood 1-9 to 0-6.
It took a full 30 minutes for Eoin Cody to register the game’s first score from a dead ball. That’s usually a good sign but this was a curiously flat half in front of a decent crowd on such a decent Bank Holiday Sunday.
Galway had reason to be pleased with their part in that.
If eight first-half wides were a cause for concern then the restart curbed them. McLoughlin got Galway off to another flyer with a brilliant point from the sideline and then goaled with a rebound after John Cooney’s shot was saved brilliantly by Aidan Tallis.
That left them 2-15 to 0-13 in front with just over 20 minutes to go and with two of Kilkenny’s three second-period scores to that point coming from Cody frees. Not a scenario anyone envisaged last week.
Still, as Antony Daly is wont to say, Kilkenny aren’t the type to lay down and they kept chipping away at the deficit courtesy of those Cody dead balls and Galway’s diminishing threat at the other end.
Only a superb Darach Fahy save, down low to his left, prevented a Cody goal that would have left just a single point between them, but Keoghan kept the pressure on seconds later with a Hail Mary effort from under the main stand.
Galway had already turned to the bench and called on the likes of Daithi Burke and Flynn but the changes were having no discernible effect. The waves kept on sweeping down towards the city end of the ground.
What followed looked inevitable, Cody sweeping unhindered down the middle of a parting rearguard and producing a sublime finish around a standing defence and into the far corner of the Galway net. They were now, somehow, a point to the good with eight to go.
The hard work looked done. It wasn’t. Some turn up for the books.
E Cody (1-6, 0-6 frees); M Keoghan (0-7); C Kenny (0-3); P Moylan, P McDonald and L Hogan (all 0-1).
y: D McLoughlin (2-2); G Lee and T Monaghan (both 0-3); J Flynn (0-3 frees); P Mannion (0-2); C Fahy, J Cooney, T Killeen, C Whelan and J Fleming (all 0-1); C Cooney (0-1 free).
: A Tallis; M Butler, H Lawlor, P Moylan; M Carey, D Blanchfield, Z Bay Hammond; P Deegan, P McDonald; M Keoghan, C Kenny, L Connellan; L Hogan, E Cody, G Dunne, Subs: S Murphy for Bay Hammond (24); B Ryan for Hogan (HT); B Drennan for Connellan (47); H Shine for Deegan (53); E Lyng for Moylan (61);
: D Fahy; S Morgan, F Burke, D Morrissey; P Mannion, G Lee, TJ Brennan; C Fahy, T Monaghan; John Cooney, T Killeen, Cillian Whelan; Conor Whelan, C Cooney, J Fleming.
Subs: Daithi Burke for Brennan (53); J Flynn for J Cooney (55); K Cooney for C Cooney (57); S Linnane for Daithi Burke (blood, 63-65) and for Fleming (66); A Burns for McLoughlin (69);
: T Walsh (Waterford).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
