Galway v Kildare

[GaillimhIarthair]

Another must win game for Galway on Sunday.  A good win v Armagh must be built on, but definitely cannot afford to go a full half without scoring again !  PJ's return last time out combined with the introduction of Niall Coleman was crucial and in the end was the difference between the sides.  Coleman has to start this Sunday as his abrasive nature is exactly whats requied in this team at the moment.  Looks like we are still without the 2 Meehans, Fitzy and Gary Sice so team selection will not be a whole lot different from last day. 

Kildare are going very well at the moment and a win on Sunday wouldn't leave them that far off a semi spot.  I know their missing Sweeney but not sure who else is out through injury.  John Doyle is going great guns and hopefully Blake will at least break even here, if not, expect Damien Burke to be given the role of man marking him.

Galway have a very good record v Kildare in recent years, so Galway by 2 for me (hopefully !)

[Dinny Breen]

Only Kevin O'Neill will start from the Moorefield players, he's a fine player and our great white hope for full back, did a great job on Cooper in the Club Semi's, other than that I don't expect too many changes, there is a high confidence in the county so a good few should travel. Watched them train last night and they looked very sharp still Galway are a bogey side so they'll probably edge a tight one.
For Galway supporters one Kildare player you should keep on eye is Podge O'Neill, very good player and a big lump should take some off the scoring burden off Johnny Doyle.

Kildare Probable

E Murphy; E Callaghan, K O'Neill, A MacLochlann; M Scanlon, M Hogarty, A Rainbow; K Brennan, W Heffernan; D McCormack, J Doyle, B Flanagan; P O'Neill, T O'Connor, M Donnelly

[An Lark]

I'm surprised at you Dinny

Actual Kildare team (from http://kildare.gaa.ie/) is...

1.  Enda Murphy
2.  Eamonn Callaghan
3.  David Lyons
4.  Emmet Bolton
5.  Anthony Rainbow
6.  Mark Hogarty
7.  Mark Scanlon
8.  Kevin O'Neill
9.  Killian Brennan
10. James Kavanagh
11. John Doyle
12. Brian Flanagan
13. Padraig O'Neill
14. Tomas O'Connor
15. Murt Donnelly

[GalwayBayBoy]

Meehans, Fitzgerald return to Galway squad
09 March 2007


The Meehan brothers, Declan and Michael, along with former All-Star defender Kieran Fitzgerald, have returned to the Galway squad ahead of Sunday's NFL Division 1B meeting with Kildare.

The three took a break from the county set-up following the recent death of Mairead Meehan, girlfriend of Kieran Fitzgerald and sister of the Caltra clubmen.

[Dinny Breen]

 

Well I was pretty close but what the f*ck is Kevin O'Neill doing named at midfield? Lyons did well on Muldoon in the league so fair enough and Kavanagh looked lively when he came on so McCormack is unlucky but O'Neill is not a midfielder, maybe mind games, only JC would play mind games in the league...

[An Lark]

Close enough alright Dinny. I suppose with Earley out midfield is a problem area. It sounded like they struggled there against Derry. Also it would probably be a bad message to the players to drop Lyons as soon as Kevin O'Neill became available. But you are right though - he's a great full back and come championship we need him there. Mind you - he'll probably do well in midfield too.

Another thing - I don't think Crofton is capable of mind games

[GaillimhIarthair]

Meehans, Fitzgerald return to Galway squad
09 March 2007


The Meehan brothers, Declan and Michael, along with former All-Star defender Kieran Fitzgerald, have returned to the Galway squad ahead of Sunday's NFL Division 1B meeting with Kildare.

The three took a break from the county set-up following the recent death of Mairead Meehan, girlfriend of Kieran Fitzgerald and sister of the Caltra clubmen.

Great to see the lads back in the squad after the tough times they have endured recently, although I would be surprised if any of them play a part on Sunday. 

[Heshs Umpire]

Dinny,

Which Moorefield player is Kevin O'Neill? I umpired the Moorefield v St Pats Leinster Club game and the full back was in all sorts of trouble with Paul Earls. Then a tall midfielder with a bit of a beard came back and completely put the shackles on Earls. I presume this is O'Neill? He was very impressive

[Dinny Breen]

HU,

Then a tall midfielder with a bit of a beard came back and completely put the shackles on Earls. I presume this is O'Neill? He was very impressive

That's him alright, very impressive player had a great league campaign last year and then got injured before the Championship, a big loss for us at the time...

[Duine Eile]

1.Paul Doherty
2.Alan Burke
3.Finian Hanley
4.Damien Burke
5.Niall Coyne
6.Diarmuid Blake
7.Mike Comer
8.Barry Cullinane
9.Joe Bergin
10.Derek Savage
11.Ja Fallon
12.Niall Coleman
13.Cormac Bane
14.Padraic Joyce
15.Nicky Joyce

[GalwayBayBoy]

Galway 1-8
Kildare 1-6

Galway nearly make a reverse of the Armagh game. 7 points clear early in the 2nd half but they were hanging on for the win at the end.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Galway are back on track following a 1-8 to 1-6 NFL Division 1B victory over Kildare in a poor game played in atrocious conditions at Pearse Stadium.

The winners dominated the first half but in the end Kildare were left to rue a penalty miss from Padraig O'Neill.

After the sides had traded early points, Padraig Joyce set up his cousin Nicky Joyce for Galway's first goal of the campaign.

Kildare were soon level: Murt Donnelly tapped the ball to the net from a few yards out after a mistake from Galway keeper Paul Doherty: 1-1 apiece.

Galway got the next six points without reply to lead by 1-7 to 1-1. It could have been worse for the Lilywhites had Derek Savage and Nicky Joyce made the most of decent goal-scoring opportunities that came their way.

John Crofton's charges trailed by six at the break, but that margin could easily have been twelve had the westerners shown more ruthlessness in front of goal.

There were only three scores in the third quarter: Cormac Bann got his fourth point for Galway and Kildare's Padraig O'Neill sent a penalty over the bar and then tagged on a point.

Kildare took control and hit five points without reply. Tadgh Fennin chipped in with two of those scores but the Tribesmen held on despite only registering a solitary second-half point.

[GaillimhIarthair]

As usual we were treated to the usual Jekell & Hyde performance from our lads in Salthill yesterday.  A superb first half of football (allowing for the conditions) followed by a complete melt down in the second half. The football in the first 35mins was quality stuff with the 2 Joyces and Cormac Bane really putting Kildare to the sword and to be honest we should have had about 2-11 on the board at HT and not 1-07 such was Galways dominance all over the field.  Kildares goal came from a poor handling error from our keeper and to be honest they threatened little as they just could not win any possession around the middle third of the field. 

Brutal stuff from our lads in the second half as Kildare started to win the majority of possession at midfield and tagged on some decent points (some v poor misses also !).  galway only registederd 1 point in the second half, a very good effort from Bane who finished with 4pts for the afternoon.  Only for John Doyle went off injured in the first half Galway would have been in real trouble near the end as Kildare squandared some good free taking opportunities.  Anyway, a win is a win and we are now in a much healthier position than 3 weeks back.  Next game up is v Westmeath in Mullingar and there the lads should need look no further that last summer for inspiration for that one ! 

[GalwayBayBoy]

Louth, Westmeath and Down left to play. Hard games but they are all winnable if the team play like they did in the first half yesterday and the second half against Armagh. We really have to look to put together a consistent run of form. At the moment we're fantastic for parts of games and woeful for other parts.

At least the players have given themselves as decent chance of division 1 football next year.