Connacht Senior Football Championship Final: Galway 2-20 Sligo 0-12
THOUGH GAA history has shown that even the biggest of underdogs can bite and bite hard on provincial final day, Sunday's double helping in Connacht and Munster illustrated the chasm that currently exists between the All-Ireland contenders and the rest.
Galway are very much in the former category as, despite a bright opening from Sligo, they exerted total control on their way to back-to-back Connachts for the first time in two decades.
Man of the match Matthew Tierney's haul of 2-7, 2-5 from open play, was the centrepiece of another accomplished display from last year's beaten All-Ireland finalists and it was a measure of their dominance that Shane Walsh, Rob Finnerty and Cillian McDaid could all be withdrawn with victory secure prior to the three-quarter mark.
"The two goals in the first half gave us a big, big cushion," winning manager Padraic Joyce said afterwards.
"The first goal was going to be crucial in the game, whoever got it."
It was a thing of beauty, too. John Daly's cultured left boot found Damien Comer inside the Sligo defensive cover and one swift handpass later Tierney was roofing a close-range finish past Daniel Lyons.
If the opening goal was born out of Galway's creativity, the second has its origins in sloppy Sligo play. Comer picked off a pass intended for Cian Lally before taking off, drawing the cover and leaving Tierney with a routine task of side-stepping the Sligo 'keeper.
"We lost that ball 65 or 70 yards out and as soon as we lost that ball it looked like a goal and it finished as a goal," Sligo boss Tony McEntee commented.
"Lower divisions teams will not crucify you as much as that. Time on the ball isn't so much the issue, it's the mistakes made."
That left it 2-5 to 0-4 in Galway's favour after just 23 minutes and given that Sligo were backed by a more than decent wind into the old bacon factory end, it was game over to all intents and purposes.
Not even Ian Burke's black card just prior to the break could discommode Galway and their 2-7 to 0-5 interval advantage was never in danger of slipping at any stage.
With Seán Carrabine, Niall Murphy and Darragh Cummins on target, Sligo did match them point for point from the restart up to the hour mark.
The gap stood at a respectable 2-13 to 0-11 before the winners accelerated further clear with Tierney topping up his tally and Johnny Heaney and Cathal Sweeney adding their second points on the afternoon in front of 11,867.
"We're very pleased," added Joyce. "We put a lot of work into it to try and win Connacht and we have now. It's great to defend the title. We haven't done that in Galway, believe it or not, for 20 odds years since 2002 and 2003. I know we won it comfortably enough in the end but the most pleasing part of it is that the players' performance didn't drop from first minute to last."
It was a sobering end to a memorable weekend for Sligo football. Though their U20s toppled Kerry to reach next weekend's All-Ireland decider, their seniors' winning run of nine matches through Division Four and on into Connacht came to abrupt end.
"The U20 success was brilliant, and everybody loves that bit of buoyancy it is creating for us," added McEntee.
"But the truth is, in our dressing room, they probably don’t think about the U20s at the minute. They are disappointed in themselves, disappointed because they knew there was more in them and maybe didn’t show enough of themselves out there today.
"U20s is brilliant, very pleased for the U-20s. They are a brilliant outfit and hopefully they win the final now against Kildare. But on our own we need to stand up and that is what we need to do now."
GALWAY: C. Gleeson; J. McGrath, S. Kelly (captain, 0-1), J. Glynn; D. McHugh (0-1), J. Daly, C. McDaid (0-1); P. Cooke (0-1), M. Tierney (2-7, 0-1f, 0-1 45); J. Maher, Shane Walsh (0-2, 0-2f), J. Heaney (0-2); R. Finnerty, I. Burke (0-2), D. Comer. Subs: C. Sweeney (0-2), for Walsh, 41 mins; D. Conneely, for Finnerty, 46 mins; C. Hernon, for McDaid, 48 mins; T. Culhane (0-1), for Comer, 60 mins; P. Kelly, for Maher, 62 mins.
SLIGO: D Lyons; E. McGuinness, N. Mullen, E. Lyons; P. McNamara, B. Cox, D. Cummins (0-3); C. Lally, P. Kilcoyne (0-1); F. Cawley, P. Spillane (0-1), L. Towey; K. Cawley, S. Carrabine (0-4, 0-2f), N. Murphy (0-3, 0-1f, 0-1 45). Subs: M. Gordon, for K. Cawley, 41 mins; G. O'Kelly Lynch, for Lally, 49 mins; P. O'Connor, for Spillane, 49 mins; M. Walsh, for Cummins, 53 mins; A. Reilly, for F. Cawley, 65 mins.
REFEREE: Brendan Cawley (Kildare).
