Maigh Eo v Gaillimh

[belleaqua]

Nicky Joyce on for Bane....Sammon doesnt hang around. Galway typically gone to sleep again. 1 point game.

[doirebhoy]

all square, sounds great game

[GalwayBayBoy]

FT

Mayo 1-11
Galway 2-9

Padraig Joyce kicked the winning point near the death after last year's minor captain Paul Conroy got the equaliser. Great win considering three Galway players went off injured in the first half. Bergin on crutches apparently. Hope he's not too bad.

[belleaqua]

Galway by a point...very lucky..draw would have been a fair result...

[An Fhairche Abu]

Sounded like hard stuff in the 2nd half for Galway to get that result in what was testing conditions. Perhaps a draw would have been a fair result but it was Mayo that were a point up with only 2 minutes left of the 70 when it was there to be won. To come back and win is encouraging as Mayo played the better ball in the 2nd half against a strong breeze going by the radio commentary from Galway Bay FM.
The quickfire 1-1 scored just before half time was the winning of this match in the end, badly needed that to prevent Mayo having a big HT lead.
Good to see that Sammon is not afraid to take off lads even if they've already come on as a sub for someone else, he has got more ruthless in making chances since I was at the Galway-Kildare match and was concerned that he didn't take Burke off before he got sent off. A marked change in this aspect of management to the Forde reign.
It nearly goes without saying that the one man you'd want to have the ball in injury time to kick a winner would be Joyce, who was Galway Bay's MOTM.
Would be worried about the injuries, Bergins didn't sound too good at all, would need to be picking from a full deck for the litmus test that is Kerry.

[belleaqua]

Great to see young Conroy make such an impact. We still need a victory next weekend or else a slim defeat to make a league final. It would be cruel luck not to meke it now. Is Cooper back for Kerry next weekend? Fingers crossed Bergin's injury isnt too serious.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Fingers crossed Bergin's injury isnt too serious.

If he was on crutches I think we can probably rule him out of any further league action anyway. Just hope he is back in time to play some part in the championship.

[belleaqua]

Ya it would seem so. While Sammon was quick to make changes, Meehan should have remained at full forward throughout, caused all sorts of bother, set up the two goals. Its alot easier mark Meehan in the corner...especially if your Keith Higgins

[dodo]

Mid-West gave Padraic Joyce man of the match too. I would of given it to Matthew Clancy, roasted Colm Boyle all day and worked tirelessly. It was an entertaining match throughout and a pity that Clarke's kickout at the death went to Padraic Joyce of all people. Had the time to steady himself and took his score very well. As said before I thought Mayo's second half performance against the wind (and snow) deserved a draw but fair play to the Galway boys.
Kieran Conroy at full back struggled on Meehan, seems a bit ponderous at times when he should be attacking the ball and being more decisive. Fisted a high ball in the second half with both fists that gave Galway a score where he should of caught it. Might make it in time but has a lot to learn yet.
The full forward line got bad service all day, Andy Moran being the most prominent. Showing constantly and scored his goal well in the move of the match.
Hope Bergin's injury isn't as serious as it appears. Nice to see him being clapped at halftime as he was being carried across the pitch.

[galwayman]

Good win for our lads today.I actually thought we just about deserved the win. We hit the woodwork a few times and I thought looked the more threatening of the 2 teams up front.
I have to say though that the referee was atrocious. Talk about inconsistency in decisions. There were times in the first half in particular when backs were being mauled coming out with the ball and got penalised for over carrying while at other times in the second half the slightest contact resulted in a free being given.
Maybe I'm showing a bias here but i thought he was particularly hard on Galway on a few occasions and some of those poor decisions led directly to Mayo points.

Anyway back to the real action. Cullinane did well overall at midfield though Galway by no means won the midfield battle.Mayo possibly shaded it here overall.Meehan had the beating of Conroy all day and forced Mayo to move Higgins over on him early in the second half. There were a few occasions where he was away from Conroy in the first half only to spill the ball and the chance was lost. Clancy roasted Colm Boyle also. Damien Dunleavy did well also.Breathnach was ok - took his goal well but tends to put the head down and run into traffic. The backs did well. Deccie Meehan's distribution is awful though. He gives the ball away far too often with poor passes. The full back line were solid while Sice & Mullaghy were outstanding once again. Mullaghy has been our best player in the league so far and once again was very good today.

Mike Meehan didn't score too much from play today but he won almost every single ball that came his way. Gave a beautiful pass to Breathnach for the 1st goal and was also heavily involved in the 2nd goal.
On a bad note, a few people were saying in Castlebar that they had heard that Bergin has a suspected broken ankle.
This would be terrible news for Joe himself and for Galway as it would put him out of the championship. We're not exactly flush with midfielders as it is. Paul Conroy had a supoer second half today. He got on a lot of ball and used it well.

You would have to compliment both teams for such an entertaining game in atrocious conditions. There were frequent showers of sleet and hail for most of the second half and the ball would have been like a bar of soap.

[WJP11]

For a Mayo perspective on the game, see http://mayogaablog.com/.

[Barney]

The crucial things from a Mayo point of view which I believe gave Galway the upper-hand:

- leaving Harte and Gill on the wings. Meehan and Mullally had a serious impact as a result. This lack of pace in the half-forward line will be severly punished on a Summer pitch.

- Matthew Clancy - why was something different not tried? Boyle followed him around the place without success and was nowhere when he scored the goal.

- bizarre decision to replace Barry Moran with Ronaldson. Moran did not do anything of note but we did do better around the middle with him there.

Other possible lessons -

- Higgins must mark Meehan. It was edging towards Meehan yesterday but KH is still the best man for that job.

- I think Conroy is growing into the full-back role. Will have bad moments but he is staying tight to his man and in an intimidating presence.

- have we seen the true worth of Austin O'Malley again? This is as near to championship football as he has seen in the league.

- Mortimer and Moran inside on their own will not win enough ball agailnst Galway. Maybe Moran is needed at full-forward?

Anyway cracking game in the conditions and hopefully we will get more of the same if the teams meet in July. Galway have the better footballers though and still have to be hot favourites for Connacht.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Terrible weather conditions in castlebar yesterday and a credit to both teams who put on a decent show in very trying circumstances.  The snow shower in the second half was surreal.  Galway probably just about deserved to win it as they created the better scoring opportunities during the game but credit to Mayo for storming back mid way thru the second half and actually leading by 1 with about 3 mins left.  Mayo will be disappointed that they didn't at least get the draw but a superb point from Paul Conroy and a cool finish by PJ, after a poor kickout from Clarke, enabled Galway to leave castlebar with a league final place very much within our grasp.  Hopefully Bergins injury isn't too bad but it didn't look good with him being carried to the dressingroom.  Sets it all up very nicely for Kerry in Salthill next Sunday where a win, draw or narrow defeat would be enough to see us through.

[MaroonAndWhite]

Joe Bergin did his achilles as per the GBFM this morning so its a long term injury in all likelihood.

[MaroonAndWhite]

Far from all quiet on the Western front
Eugene McGee
Monday April 07 2008


On a few occasions during recent years I have referred to aspects of the play of both Galway and Mayo footballers as being 'nice.'

It usually refers to a type of game in which there are many talented footballers, but maybe not so many who are prepared to swap hard graft on a continuous basis for style. Well, yesterday in Castlebar that was not a charge that I could level at any player involved in this hugely entertaining national league game between Galway and Mayo.

The mere fact that weather conditions varied between sunshine, gales, hailstones and snowfalls meant that any person wanting to make an impression before the very large crowd would have their work cut out to do so. But, to their credit, every one of the 36-odd players who entered the fray put everything into it and as a result we had a terrific game, despite the elements.

The intriguing thing about the game was the series of individual challenges between the best players from each team. It is obvious from the scoreboard that this game was balanced on a knife edge for the greater part of the contest, but there just seemed to be more players in Galway capable of making the right decisions than Mayo.
What that meant is that Galway were more economical with their use of good ball and the fact that it was they who got the last two points to win the game indicates that.

It was fitting that at the start of a new Galway football regime under manager Liam Sammon those two points came from opposite ends of the age bracket. Sub Paul Conroy, a minor All- Ireland medal winner last year, scored the levelling point and veteran Padraic Joyce scooped over the winner in time added on. All in all, a good day's work for the Galway team.

But Mayo would have deserved a draw on the run of play as their performance was at least equal in territorial possession and all round effort in the terrible conditions.
Newcomers to most of us, like midfielder Tom Parsons, defender Tom Cunniffe and fullback Kieran Conroy, showed great promise and it was the full-back who traversed the full length of the field to be available to score what appeared the winning point for Mayo before the Galway snatch operation in lost time.

One of the surprising things about the game was that Keith Higgins was not marking Michael Meehan from the start of the match. Higgins has often outplayed the brilliant Meehan, but usually from the corner-forward position. Yesterday Meehan was at full-forward where the extra space and movement gave him greater freedom. In the first half, the Caltra man made good use of that space and it was a brilliant pass from Meehan which set up Fiachra Breathnach for Galway's opening goal in the 34th minute.
Higgins was dispatched for his usual 'inside the jersey job' on Meehan after half-time, but again, with more space than usual, the Mayo man did not succeed as well as usual even though still making a big contribution to Mayo's cause.Meehan is on fire since Liam Sammon took over and that is a huge bonus for Galway. Galway's second goal after half-time was scored by Matthew Clancy, but again the original shot came from Meehan and he was only deprived by a great save by goalkeeper David Clarke.

This was not a typical Mayo-Galway game as regards football styles because of necessity when each team was backed by the gale-force wind they tended to loft in high balls to the full-forward line. But it must be said that neither team profited very much from that approach.

There was a great atmosphere in McHale Park for this match, despite the Arctic conditions, and one could detect the makings of a great new Galway-Mayo rivalry as two outstanding coaching-managers, Sammon and John O'Mahony, prepare to do battle if they both qualify for this year's Connacht final. There was a certainly a 'cut' about each team yesterday that indicated serious football intentions and as always when great football rivals really set their sights on beating each other the fans get their money's worth.

That about sums up what happened in Castlebar yesterday.