DONOGHUE: GALWAY ON RIGHT ROAD
GALWAY continued to move through the gears in Salthill yesterday, chalking up a third win of the campaign to book a place in the quarter-finals of the Allianz League.
Their League success a year ago propelled them to their first All-Ireland title since 1988 and manager Micheál Donoghue is happy with the way his experimental side is shaping up.
Offaly’s revival under Kevin Martin remains a work in progress and while they put themselves in a good position by half-time yesterday, when they only trailed by four points at the break, it all unravelled shortly after the restart.
Joseph Cooney got in for his second goal and then centreforward Shane Kinsella was red-carded after a tangle with Paul Flaherty. That meant Offaly were 2-11 to 0-8 adrift with almost half an hour to go with 14 men.
Inevitably, Galway just pulled away with ease on a day when they took the number of players used in their three League matches to 30. Offaly failed to score a goal for the second match in a row and will now be looking for a big response when they host Laois next weekend.
‘It could have been borderline, I don’t know,’ said Offaly manager Kevin Martin about the dismissal. ‘I didn’t really catch it in front of me, I was following the ball on. I didn’t really see what happened.
‘They got 1-2 straight after the break but we will still there with a shout. We hadn’t really got going in the second half. Then Kinsella got sent off. It was like a carbon copy of two weeks ago in the Limerick game. If you get a man sent off against this calibre they just crucify you.’
He felt they were in a good position to push on with the breeze when they turned around trailing by 1-9 to 0-8.
‘Galway are AllIreland champions and they have that bit of class. They are able to open you up in a few minutes. Eoghan Cahill pulled off a couple of saves. But we are disappointed overall. We thought turning at half-time, we were after making a couple of substitutions that were going to work and it just turned pearshaped,’ added Martin. Offaly, having started brightly when they opened up a 0-4 to 0-2 lead after seven minutes, could thank goalkeeper Cahill for keeping them in the game as he superbly denied Paul Flaherty and Cooney. But a goal from Joseph Cooney after good work by Conor Cooney and Davy Glennon sent Galway on their way after eight minutes. Three frees from Damien Egan and a couple from play by Dan Currams kept Offaly in contention. But Cooney’s second goal and the dismissal of Kinsella left them with a mountain to climb after that as they trailed by 2-11 to 0-8 after 42 minutes. Offaly kept battling away and substitute Tommy Geraghty laid down a marker when he hit three points in the second half. But they really needed a goal or two and never looked like achieving that against a Galway defence which had Gearoid McInerney back for his first start of the season. Cahill produced another good save to deny Davy Glennon and while Shane Dooley added a few frees for Offaly when he came on, they never looked like staging a big comeback.
Galway continued to add scores from all angles. Conor Cooney may have accumulated six wides – he scored 0-7 – but the Tribesmen were never troubled.
Cathal Mannion brought his haul to 0-5 from play, as newcomer Loftus laid down a marker along with Kevin McHugo and Jack Coyne who made their senior debuts for Galway.
‘The new lads that came in today certainly put their hands up,’ O’Donoghue said. ‘We have to use the League to give the younger lads and the new lads an opportunity. We will continue to do that.
‘When they get the opportunity they have to take it and Shane Cooney and Seán Loftus did well. We had two hard weeks of training and we were very conscious that there would be a bit of tiredness.
‘But the attitude was a big step up and I know that the hurling will improve over the next few weeks. I think we are going in the right direction,’ he said.
GALWAY: J Skehill; A Tuohy, P Mannion, S Bannon; S Cooney, G McInerney, A Harte (B Flaherty 59); J Coen (K McHugo 66), S Loftus; J Cooney (N Burke 39), C Mannion, P Flaherty; C Cooney, C Whelan (B Concannon 52), D Glennon (J Coyne 69). Scorers: J Cooney 2-1; C Cooney 0-7 (4f); C Mannion 0-5; S Loftus 0-3; P Flaherty 0-2; N Burke 0-1. OFFALY: E Cahill; B Conneely, S Gardiner, T Spain; D O’Toole, P Camon, J Quinn (D Shortt 36); D King (S Dooley 52), P Delaney (T Geraghty 36); C Gath (C Egan 48), S Kinsella, O Kelly (J Bergin 65); D Egan, C Mahon, D Currams. Scorers: D Egan (3f), D Currams, T Geraghty 0-3; S Kinsella, S Dooley (2f) 0-2; D King 0-1. Referee: C McAllister (Cork).