Sunday, April 10, 2011

Pat O'Brien Cup - Donegal 0-5 Galway 0-3

Donegal and Galway served up a low scoring encounter.  Chances were created by both teams, but neither had the shooting boots fine tuned yet.  The half time score of 0-3 to 0-1 in Donegal’s favour was indicative of the nature of the game.  Galway were guilty of at least four misses from frees that later in the season should be bankers.  For their part, Donegal missed plenty of chances from play.  However, Kevin Curran and Christopher McLaughlin managed to send the ball between the posts three times between them in the opening period.  Danny Reddin managed the lone score for Galway.  Galway worked hard throughout the half but it was all for very little return on the scoreboard. 

Galway's Peter Nolan with Hugh Devine in pursuit.
The second half continued along the same vein. The misses continued to mount at both ends of the field. Rocky Ivors looked lively in the Donegal forward line, and the man from Iorras added to the lead about 10 minutes into the second period. With both sides huffing and puffing in the search for scores, Kevin Curran added to Donegal’s tenuous lead with a point that made it a four point advantage for the northerners. Galway mounted a late assault on the Donegal goal which yielded two points, one from Donal Redmond and the other from Reddin right at the final whistle. Ray Byrne, Owen Kavanagh, and Jason Foley were best for Galway, while for Donegal Tom Caldwell had a good outing in the half back line, along with Rocky Ivors and Christopher McLaughlin up front. Donegal meet the Wolfe Tones next week.


Donegal: L. Mailey, H. Devine, B. Friel, T. Caldwell, J. O’Byrne, M. Kelly, P. McLaughlin, E. Doonan, P. Boyce, K. Curran, R. Ivors, C. McLaughlin, E. McCarney. Galway: P. McComiskey, P. Cummins, JJ O’Neill, R. Byrne, P. Ryan, J. Keogh, T. Walsh, O. Kavanagh, D. Redmond, G. O’Connor, J. Foley, P. Nolan, D. Reddin


By Rory O'Donnell

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