SHEFFLIN TO TAKE ON CATS AGAIN
Galway Dublin 0-21
0-27 BY DARAGH SMALL GALWAY boss Henry Shefflin praised the workrate of his men as they advanced to the Leinster final and another showdown with Brian Cody and Kilkenny.
They did enough to secure the win at Pearse Stadium and send Dublin crashing out of the Championship on an inferior points difference.
“Our pattern of play wasn’t brilliant but I thought our workrate was extremely high,” said Shefflin. “That was very pleasing. We turned them over a lot and won a few frees from that.”
The frosty exchange between the Kilkenny boss and Shefflin following Galway’s one-point win over the Cats a few weeks ago is set to up the tempo in the build-up to the Leinster final in two weeks.
But Shefflin will be more concerned with injuries to former skippers David Burke and Padraic Mannion after both limped off.
And the Tribe boss will feel there is ample room for improvement as they did just enough to see off the disappointing Dubs.
Mattie Kenny’s side never really got moving against his native county after another limp display.
Dublin had the wind in the opening half in Salthill in front of a crowd of 10,583 but went in trailing by 0-12 to 0-11 with sides guilty of missing chances on a blustering evening in Salthill.
Their failure to build a lead with the elements left them chasing the game, but Galway pulled away and even a missed penalty when Conor Cooney’s effort was saved by Sean Brennan didn’t derail the Tribesmen.
Conor Whelan hit 0-05 in the second-half to see them home and Conor Cooney became Galway’s second top scorer in the SHC behind Joe Canning when he landed the second of his 13 points.
The sides were level eight times in the first half, but it was stop-start with Johnny Murphy constantly blowing for frees.