Senior Football: Galway v Shannon Blues

Shannon Blues 3-16 Galway 0-11

The gap between the teams on the scoreboard was considerable, however, the biggest difference was not in the balance of play as much as the ability to penetrate.  Shannon Blues possess a potent pair of corner forwards and coupled with a belief in their abilities from the rest of the team will be hard to beat this season.  Galway took the game to the Blues from the throw in, but were left looking at a two goal deficit at the break, and the game continued to slip farther away as the game moved on.

Darren Wallace on the run to set up Barry Dwyer's goal.

Galway will have considered themselves to be very unlucky to be trailing at half time, never mind by six points.  Galway outplayed the Blues for most of the 30 minutes and had six points to show for their efforts.  Craig Kennedy was lively in the forward line, and around the middle of the field Craig Burns and Lorcan Laheen worked hard.  The tribesmen also missed a penalty, something they did not have the luxury of doing given the clinical nature of their opposing forwards in front of goal.  A foot block was penalized by Jason Long, and Kevin Cummins shot was saved by Dara O’Brien between the posts for the Blues.

The Blues relied largely on their dynamic corner forward pairing, and each accounted for a goal.  First was Dara Roche who slotted nicely into the near corner with the keeper to beat, and Barry Dwyer for on the end of a Darren Wallace ball across the box to put the second away.  The two accounted for most of the Blues points, the exception being Greg Horan with a surging effort from midfield.  At the half the Blues held a 2-6 to 0-6 lead.

Barry Dwyer finds himself in a tight spot.

The second half saw the Blues net a third goal after just over 10 minutes, and while Galway continued to battle, the chances of making up the difference were remote.  This time it was David Clifford running from the half back line to get on the end of Denis McElligott’s pass and palm the ball into the net.  In spite of some superbly pointed efforts from Kevin Cummins and Danny Reddin, Galway could not find their way past the Blues last line of defence to try and get a shot at the keeper.  Goals were needed, but the Blues defence let nothing threaten the goal of Dara O’Brien.

Roche continued to do his thing at the other end for the Blues, picking off points almost at will.  Galway did manage to pick off the points, however, the Blues were able to answer in kind almost immediately.  The Blues looking clinical with two wins out of two, Galway will be back at it in two weeks when Donegal will be the opponent.

Blues:  D. O’Brien, S. Kelly, T. Wallace, D. Clifford, C. Jordan, C. Mullen, W. Guthrie, G. Horan, D. Wallace, P. Murray, D. McElligott, D. Roche, B. Dwyer.  Galway:  J. Kelly, P. Cummins, M. Collins, F. Reilly, L. Laheen, O. Keever, S. Marchell, C. Burns, D. Reddin, K. Cummins, S. Regan, C. Kennedy, O. Reilly.

By Rory O'Donnell