McShane injury adds more woe to record Galway defeat for Harte’s men
MICKEY HARTE claimed after this record defeat to Galway that the loss of All-Star forward Cathal McShane to a serious ankle injury will have an even bigger impact on his charges than the scale of the drubbing to Pádraic Joyce’s impressive Tribesmen.
Tyrone finished with 13 men and were blown away in the final quarter as Galway outscored them by 2-11 to 0-1 despite playing against the wind.
By then Tyrone had suffered a straight red card to Kieran McGeary before the break, the loss of McShane early in the second half and then a second yellow card to Frank Burns.
“I can’t ever remember a day like it,” admitted Harte. “But it all goes to prove you never know what is around the corner. You have to just chew it when it comes and hope you can do better the next day.
“But yeah, it is very, very disappointing. I am disappointed for all of the people who put in a huge amount of work. This past two weeks they have worked as hard and prepared as well as they could have done. But you can never anticipate what can happen in a game.
“But for me the saddest thing is Cathal McShane’s injury. Everyone is very down at the outcome of that game — at both the score line and the loss of Cathal. That has an awful impact on players who play around him and with him.”
Galway led by 0-12 to 0-6 at the break after Tyrone opted to play against the breeze and Joyce’s men were good value for that advantage after some superb, free-flowing football which saw all six forwards score from play before the break and Corofin’s Ronan Steede land three magnificent efforts from midfield.
Galway captain Shane Walsh was magnificent throughout but after he extended their lead upon the restart, Tyrone rallied after the loss of McShane and three pointed frees from Darren McCurry and one from play helped cut the gap to a goal.
But then Galway pulled away when Walsh slotted home a penalty after 51 minutes after Damien Comer was fouled and with Burns getting his marching orders for a foul on Walsh, the Tribesmen made them pay.
Adrian Varley and Eamonn Brannigan kicked a string of points and the experienced Paul Conroy came off the bench to shoot 1-1 as Galway scored their biggest ever win over Tyrone in 25 league meetings.
“We’re in a good place,” said Galway manager Joyce. “I knew that we were going to give a good performance and what a place to do that, in the spiritual home of Galway football with great support again. But I always tell the lads that they have to give reason for the supporters to start following them.
“Our goal is to bring back in the supporters and there’s way more support coming in each day but we didn’t envisage we’d win the game by so much.
“There’s a number of factors in that, the sending offs and the unfortunate injury to Cathal McShane.”
SCORERS – Galway: S Walsh 1-8 (1-0 pen, 5f); A Varley 0-4; P Conroy 1-1; E Brannigan 0-4; R Steede 0-3; M Daly, D Comer 0-2 each; R Finnerty 0-1. Tyrone: D McCurry 0-7 (6f); C McShane 0-2’ K McGeary, N Sludden, M Bradley 0-1 each.
GALWAY – C Gleeson 8; S Kelly 7, S Mulkerrin 8, J Heaney 6; G O’Donnell 7, L Silke 6, C McDaid 6; R Steede 8, C D’Arcy 6; E Brannigan 7, D Comer 7, M Daly 6; R Finnerty 6, S Walsh 8, A Varley 8. Subs: T Flynn 7 for D’Arcy (27), P Conroy 7 for Finnerty (47), D Conneely 6 for M Daly (59), C Campbell 6 for O’Donnell (59), S A O Ceallaigh 6 for McDaid (65).
TYRONE – N Morgan 7; N Kelly 6, R McNamee 6, L Rafferty 6; T McCann 6, R Brennan 6, P Harte 7; C Cavanagh 6, B Kennedy 7; K McGeary 6, N Sludden 7, D McCurry 7; F Burns 6, C McShane 7, C Meyler 6. Subs: P Hampsey 6 for Cavanagh (36), M McKernan 6 for Kelly (36), M Bradley 7 for McShane (39), B McDonnell 6 for Kennedy (54), C Grimes 6 for McCann (62).
REF – C Lane (Cork).