Walsh’s preventable late goal edges Galway past a battling Westmeath side
Galway 1-12, Westmeath 0-11
By Gerry Buckley
A totally committed Westmeath senior football side got caught by a sucker punch goal from Shane Walsh in the 67th minute and, accordingly, were decidedly unfortunate to lose by a four-point margin to an under-strength Galway side in ideal conditions for football in front of approximately 8,000 supporters at TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon.
Make no mistake about it, the red-hot favourites were pushed all the way by the underdogs in green and maroon. Indeed, the Connacht champions looked in real danger of being at the wrong end of a sensational result until Ray Connellan, who had the misfortune to have been red-carded in the corresponding fixture almost exactly 12 months ago, failed to pick out Charlie Drumm, allowing the winners’ highly-rated full forward to solo goalward unhindered and blast the ball past Jason Daly.
Ironically, all is not lost for Westmeath. And deservedly so. Given Derry’s heavy defeat at the hands of Ulster rivals Armagh, the Division 1 champions need to defeat their Division 3 counterparts in 11/12 days from now to avoid an early and ignominious exit from the championship.
Galway, who had the aid of a slight wind in the first moiety, almost got off to a dream start when a strong run by Matthew Tierney after the throw-in teed up Cein Darcy for a goal chance, but Daly pulled off a terrific save at the expense of a ‘45’ which Connor Gleeson converted. Sam McCartan equalised in fine style from a tight angle, and Dessie Dolan’s charges took the lead in the seventh minute courtesy of a fisted effort by Robbie Forde when a goal briefly looked on.
All Star nominee Ronan O’Toole was black-carded in the tenth minute, and the visitors scored two points during that ten-minute spell via Darcy and a Walsh free. Point exchanges ensued between David Lynch (after a great piece of fielding) and Cian Hernon, Walsh and John Heslin (both from frees), and the latter duo again, with Walsh’s score from play on this occasion.
A great point from Ray Connellan at the end of a patient move tied up the scoring at 0-6 apiece with a half an hour elapsed. Cillian McDaid nudged Padraic Joyce’s troops ahead, but the Lake County men finished the half strongly with points from Heslin (a free, after the impressive Ronan Wallace was pushed close to the large parallelogram) and Wallace himself (a wonderful score in the last action of the half). Westmeath, who had shot no wides to Galway’s five, led by 0-8 to 0-7 at the interval.
Heslin doubled Westmeath's lead with a converted free in the 39th minute. Gleeson then missed two long-range placed balls at the other end - a '45' and a free from slightly further out - but the Tribesmen eventually drew level with a point apiece from Gleeson (from his side’s third '45' of the contest) and a free by Walsh (the award seemed very soft). Tierney opened his account in the 62nd minute, but Westmeath superbly equalised via Wallace within a minute.
The game was very much up for grabs until a misplaced pass by Connellan allowed Walsh to run almost half the length of the pitch with no Westmeath man in the vicinity, and the Kilmacud Crokes man fired an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net. Heslin narrowed the gap from a free, after a heavy challenge on James Dolan which went unpunished by way of a card, but Galway saw out a very hard-earned win with late insurance points from Tierney and blood sub Kieran Molloy.
Scorers - Galway: S Walsh 1-4 (three frees), M Tierney, C Gleeson (two '45's) 0-2 each, C Darcy, C Hernon, C McDaid, K Molloy 0-1 each.
Westmeath: J Heslin 0-5 (five frees), R Wallace 0-2, S McCartan, D Lynch, R Connellan, R Forde 0-1 each.
Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Seán Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Liam Silke; Paul Conroy, John Maher; Johnny Heaney, Matthew Tierney, Cein Darcy; Cian Hernon, Shane Walsh, Cillian McDaid. Subs used: Daniel Ó Flaherty for Hernon (45), Seán Mulkerrin for Daly (45), Tomo Culhane for McDaid (52), Cathal Sweeney for Heaney (55), Liam Ó Conghaile for Maher (65), Kieran Molloy for Mulkerrin (blood, 70).
Westmeath: Jason Daly; Jamie Gonoud, Kevin Maguire, James Dolan; Sam McCartan, Ronan Wallace, David Lynch; Ray Connellan, Andy McCormack; Jonathan Lynam, Ronan O’Toole, Charlie Drumm; Senan Baker, John Heslin, Robbie Forde. Subs used: Luke Loughlin for Forde (52), Shane Allen for Gonoud (55), Stephen Smith for Baker (55), Kieran Martin for Lynam (69), Daniel Scahill for Dolan (inj., 70).
Ref: Niall Cullen (Fermanagh).