Dublin held as Heaney strikes late
JOHNNY HEANEY was the hero for Galway as he snatched a draw with the last kick of a fiery encounter with Dublin at Pearse Stadium Eoghan O’Gara was sent off seven minutes after his introduction in the closing stages, but Dublin looked likely winners after they kicked four points in a row to take the lead.
But in the 79th minute Heaney punished Dublin as they tried to run down the clock with spoiling tactics and he kicked the leveller.
The teams will meet again in the League final in a fortnight and Kevin Walsh feels his side should have had a sixth win to their name ahead of that clash.
‘It’s a game we feel we should have won. Having said that, being a point down in injury time and to come back and get a point, we’ll take the draw,’ said Walsh.
‘It was disciplined, I suppose. The breeze was quite strong down towards the Árus side.
‘Five-point lead at half -time probably was about enough to get the draw but I think we let three late points in and they went a point up but it was good to see the lads fight to the last.’
The big surprise before the game was that Stephen Cluxton did not feature, which meant a first competitive start for Evan Comerford. Facing the inexperienced stopper Galway had quite a bit of success in the first-half, especially as three of their scores came directly from Dublin restarts, but the Dublin manager, Jim Gavin, was happy with his performance.
Gavin was inclined to stand up for O’Gara and his involvement in the sending- off and he suggested the Galway full-back might have played a role.
‘From the distance I’m at, but I just saw him being blocked by the Galway player. The Galway player goes down,’ said Gavin.
‘Listen, we’re going to have to look, first and foremost have a chat with the Dublin player and then look at the tape and see what happens.’
And according to Gavin, Diarmuid Connolly is still part of the Dublin football panel and still in his plans, but he is in need of a rest.
Connolly was a second-half sub against Mayo, but he has not featured since. Afterwards Gavin denied that they player was no longer involved in his plans.
‘ Yeah, yeah ( he is still in the squad). At the moment we are giving Diarmuid a rest as we are a few players who didn’t partake today,’ said Gavin.
With a powerful wind behind them in the first-half Galway showed excellent composure to stick in their rigid defensive shape as Dublin prodded and poked in search of fractures.
James McCarthy was the only player to break through in that opening period, but he couldn’t find Dean Rock as the goal yawned, but at the other end Barry McHugh from placed balls and Cooke from distance gave Galway a 0-10 to 0-5 lead.
Dublin slowly chipped away at the Galway lead after the break, but a fine Damien Comer point on the run eased the pressure, but after Kilkenny carried Dublin back level and into the lead, Heaney slotted the leveller deep in added-time.
‘If you look back on it maybe there was a little bit of learning for ourselves in the fact that they were under pressure. That’s what Dublin do,’ said Walsh. GALWAY: R Ó Beoláin; D Wynne, S Ó Ceallaigh (D Kyne 76), E Kerin; G O’Donnell, J Duane, C Sweeney; T Flynn, C Duggan; P Cooke (J Heaney 50), P Conroy, S Walsh (D Comer 46); A Varley (E Brannigan 41), S Armstrong (S Kelly 57), B McHugh. Scorers: B McHugh 0-5 (3f, 1 ’45); P Cooke, G O’Donnell 0-2; S Walsh, A Varley, D Comer, J Heaney 0-1. Yellow cards: A Varley 25, P Conroy 27, E Kerin 57, D Comer 60, E Brannigan 65 Black card: S Ó Ceallaigh 76 DUBLIN: E Comerford; M Fitzsimons, P McMahon, D Byrne; E Lowndes (B Fenton 36), J Small (A McGowan 67), J Cooper; M MacAuley (E Ó Conghaile 59), J McCarthy; C Reddin (C McHugh 50), C Kilkenny, P Andrews; C Basquel, D Rock (C Costello 48), P Small (E O’Gara 63). Scorers: C Kilkenny 0-5; D Rock (2f), C Costello (2f) 0-2; P Andrews, J Cooper, P Small (1f), C McHugh (1f) 0-1. Yellow cards: J Cooper 25, M Fitzsimons 60, P McMahon 65 Red card: E O’Gara 70 Black card: D Rock 46 Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan)