Gaelic Games

Galway come good against the wind to beat Tyrone and claim first win

Matthew Tierney led the way in front of a crowd of over 6,000 at Tuam Stadium

Galway's Matthew Tierney in action against Conor Meyler of Tyrone in Sunday's league clash at Tuam Stadium. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Galway's Matthew Tierney in action against Conor Meyler of Tyrone in Sunday's league clash at Tuam Stadium. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Sun Feb 19 2023 - 18:19

Galway 0-16 Tyrone 0-13

Galway manager Pádraic Joyce was pleased with the manner in which his side came good against the wind in the second-half at Tuam Stadium to carve out their first win of this season’s league.

They looked to be in trouble when Tyrone whittled back their four-point interval lead to the minimum less than 10 minutes after the restart but the Ulster side never managed to get level and it was the All-Ireland finalists, with Matthew Tierney leading the way, who pushed on for a deserved victory in front of a crowd of over 6,000.

“Tyrone actually won the toss and elected to play against the wind, so we knew the way they were going to set up,” said Joyce. “I just thought we were a bit lethargic and we probably sat too deep and we conceded the kick out a bit too easily at times

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“The second-half, after the first five or six minutes of it, you’d be very pleased with the rest of it.”

Tyrone opted to play against the wind in the opening half and were in a good position when they went in at the break trailing by just 0-7 to 0-3 after both sides had kicked five wides each in the wet conditions.

Galway struggled to get quality ball into their full-forward line with the wind with Tierney and Conroy getting five of their points and Peter Cooke and cornerback Jack Glynn chipping in with the other scores.

Tyrone went on the offensive after the restart and two points from Darren McCurry and one from Cathal McShane whittled the lead back to the minimum after 44 minutes.

Galway responded with Conroy shooting a good point to make it 0-8 to 0-6 after 47 minutes before Cormac McMunroe and Cathal Sweeney exchanged points.

McShane cut the gap to one going into the final quarter but Galway got the next three points thanks to a couple of frees from Tierney and one from Ian Burke to lead by 0-12 to 0-8 13 minutes from time.

They pushed on from there with three more points to lead by seven with five minutes left and while Tyrone rallied in the closing stages they never looked like getting the goal they needed to salvage the game and the Tribesmen held on for victory with Tyrone captain Padraig Hampsey only getting the gap down to three in the last seconds of the five minutes additional time.

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Tyrone joint manager Brian Dooher said they had laid the platform for their second win of the campaign in the opening half but didn’t push on from there.

“I was disappointed with the way the second-half went,” said Dooher. “We had worked hard to get back into it and we had opportunities to move on and we just didn’t push on and paid the price for it.

“The boys worked hard in the second-half, we can’t fault them, they really put in a good shift. We created enough chances, we just didn’t take enough of them.”

GALWAY: C Gleeson; E Kelly, S Kelly (0-1), J Glynn (0-1); D McHugh, J Daly, D O’Flaherty; P Conroy (0-3, two frees), P Cooke (0-1); M Tierney (0-6, three frees), C McDaid, J Heaney; P Kelly, E Finnerty, I Burke (0-1). Subs: J McGrath for O’Flaherty and C Sweeney (0-3) for Finnerty (both half-time), J Maher for P Kelly (68 mins), R Finnerty for McDaid (70 mins).

TYRONE: N Morgan; M McKernan, C Munroe (0-1), P Hampsey (0-1); C Quinn (0-1), P Harte (0-1), N Devlin; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; C Meyler, F Burns, N Sludden; D McCurry (0-4, two frees), C McShane (0-2, one mark), D Canavan (0-2 frees). Subs: J Oguz for Devlin (50 mins), R Canavan for Sludden (56 mins), R Donnelly (0-1) for Quinn (58 mins), M Donnelly for Burns (64 mins).

Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)