Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAROON THRIVE
Tribe too good for 14-man Hands
Galway 0-16 Tyrone 0-13 All-Ireland SFC group 2
BY JOHN FALLON
SHANE WALSH led the way as Connacht champions Galway just about did enough to see off the challenge of 14-man Tyrone.
The dismissal of Frank Burns at the end of the opening quarter tilted the game in Galway’s favour but Tyrone dug in and pushed them all the way.
Galway had an edge before the dismissal and while they maintained that, they didn’t put the game away.
However, their defence did enough to ensure a winning start to the series
a soaking wet Salthill.
Galway led by 0-7 to 0-4 at the end of an eventful opening half which saw Tyrone reduced to 13 men at one stage.
The sides were level at 0-3 apiece after 12 minutes after a lively opening, with Shane Walsh landing a couple of points from play and Johnny Heaney also finding the target for Galway as they enjoyed the backing of the breeze.
Tyrone kept in touch with Darren McCurry, Darragh Canavan and Cormac Quinn kicking good points before Cillian McDaid went forward to score and Walsh landed a free from 40 metres to lead 0-5 0-3 at the end of the first quarter.
But then Tyrone wing-forward Burns was sent off for clumsy high challenge which caught Galway defender Jack Glynn in the face after 18 minutes.
Paul Conroy extended
Galway’s lead and then after Ian Burke picked up a yellow card for a high tackle on Peter Harte, Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan was black-carded for dissent.
Tyrone kept their shape well while down to 13 men and only conceded a point in that time when Peter Cooke picked off a good effort.
Tyrone finished the half well with McCurry converting a free to cut the gap to three.
Tyrone outscored Galway by 0-3 to 0-1 in the opening 11 minutes of the secondhalf with
Mattie Donat nelly, McCurry and Canavan finding the range, cutting the gap to the minimum after Cooke fisted over an effort for Galway.
Efforts from Walsh and Matthew Tierney extended Galway’s lead to 0-10 to 0-7 at the end of the third quarter and it was nip and tuck from there.
Tyrone twice got the gap down to two but each time Galway replied to take a goal lead into stoppage time and Walsh made it safe with his sixth point of the day in Salthill.