All-Ireland GAA Hurling Championship Qualifier Round 2 – Galway 4-25 Clare 0-20

Galway show true colours

Galway 4-25 Clare 0-20

By Diarmuid O’Flynn, Pearse Stadium for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Monday, July 04, 2011

A LARGER than expected crowd were in sunny Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening for this All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier with both sets of supporters approaching the tie with trepidation. Galway were coming off the back of a depressing defeat by Dublin in the Leinster semi-final while Clare suffered a three-goal loss to All-Ireland champions Tipperary in Munster after producing a spirited performance. The home fans were concerned if Galway’s always fragile psyche was so badly damaged by their last outing that they would be vulnerable to defeat from a rising Clare, while the Banner faithful were anxious about a backlash from the Tribesman still raw from that Dublin defeat.

Galway manager John McIntyre summed it up best: “I don’t know if a few people came expecting to see a wedding or a funeral or something like that!” They saw both, a fact reflected in the reaction of the respective managers to what, in reality, had been something of a slaughter. McIntyre admitted: “There are a lot of genuine Galway supporters who haven’t lost faith in this Galway management or in this Galway team. They know that the Dublin match wasn’t a true reflection of form. It was a great result for Dublin, I’m not for one minute taking away from their victory. But Galway showed their true colours tonight. “They stood up, it was a big test of character because people would have anticipated that they would see a dispirited, disorganised, head-down Galway team going through the motions. These guys have too much pride for that to happen. And I’m thrilled for them.”

For Clare’s Ger O’Loughlin, despair, tempered slightly by hope. For the fourth game in a row his side leaked four goals, the rock they perished on. He said: “We were totally exposed in the first half. We were at sixes and sevens for the first 20 minutes, playing into a strong breeze. We were again very naive in that a lot of goals were conceded. All we can do now is go back and pick up the pieces, try and learn from it. We’re playing the best players that are available to us, we just need to get a bit more savvy about what we’re doing at the back. In fairness to Galway they were a class apart tonight and it shows the work we have to do to get there.”

On an evening when — as usual — there was a strong downfield breeze in Pearse Stadium, Clare could badly have down with winning the toss, perhaps apply some early pressure and compound some doubts that may have been lingering in Galway heads. Instead it was new Galway captain Damien Hayes getting the nod from the referee and instantly pointing with the wind. He was also pointing the way, because Damien led this one from the front, hitting Galway’s opening 1-1 after free-taker Nicky O’Connell had put Clare ahead inside a minute. Soon it was the returning Ger Farragher getting into the goal-scoring act, before points from the on-fire Joe Canning had Galway ahead 2-4 to 0-1 after 15 minutes.

“We were hoping to win the toss,” continued O’Loughlin. “But even that didn’t go our way. They were always going to come at us and try to finish us off early. Sometimes with young lads on board — like we have — you need 20 minutes to settle, to realise you can win the game. But we were on the back foot from the start. A small bit of panic set in — we were all over the place. It is very hard to fix one problem because there were so many problems.” In the 29th minute came Galway’s third goal, a stupendous effort by the powerful Canning when he simply brushed Nicky O’Connell from his path, stepped inside Patrick Donnellan, some sublime stick work, before beating Phillip Brennan off his left side. At half time it was 3-13 to 0-12, six minutes after the restart Clare were down to 14 men after wing-back James McInerney got a straight red card for a terrible pull on goal-bound Canning. Alan Kerins added Galway’s fourth major in the 54th minute. Ultimately it was men against boys.

Scorers for Galway: J Canning 1-9 (0-3f, 0-1 65, 0-1 sl); G Farragher 1-4; D Hayes 1-3; A Kerins 1-2; I Tannian 0-2; J Gantley 0-2; A Smith, D Burke, J Regan 0-1 each.

Scorers for Clare: N O’Connell 0-6 (5f, 1 65); C McGrath 0-5 (3f); C Morey 0-3; J Conlan 0-2; C McInerney, F Lynch, J Clancy, L Markham 0-1 each.

Subs for Galway: C Donnellan (Tannian 57); B Daly (Burke 65); J Regan (Gantley 65); A Harte (Farragher 67); K Hynes (Cullinane 71), D Joyce (Barry 64 blood).

Subs for Clare: B Bugler (Vaughan 35); L Markham (Clancy 44); S Collins (Lynch 48); C O’Donovan (McMahon 57); G Quinn (Donnellan 63).

Referee: D Kirwan (Cork)

Galway atone in style with big win over Clare

From the GAA.ie web site

GAA Hurling Qualifiers Phase II

Galway 4-25 Clare 0-19

Four goals from Galway’s forwards crushed the memory of their defeat in their last outing as they coasted to victory over a defensively weak Clare side.

Goals from Damien Hayes, Ger Farragher, Joe Canning and Alan Kerins showed that there is still class in this Galway side and they can still mount an assault on the remaining sides in this year’s Championship.

A red card for Clare’s James McInerney all but ended any chance of a comeback for the Banner and compounded a crushing defeat.

Clare found themselves level just once throughout the entire 70 minutes and John McIntyre’s side shook off the poor performance against Dublin, proving they could have far more to offer in this year’s Championship .

Conor McGrath opened the scoring for the visitors with just a minute gone in the game from a free but a bright start from the Tribesmen’s Damien Haynes set down an early marker.

Only seven minutes had passed and Haynes converted the first real goal chance. A long ball, which was a theme of the game, was lobbed into the Portumna man and he converted his chance and gave Galway a great start.

A fellow Portumna man was also on song with Joe Canning exploding into this game. His first score of the game was a typical Canning point but it was Hayes who was involved again in the move of the match. Hayes ran to the end line and picked out Iarla Tannian but he saw his effort rattle off the post but an alert Ger Farragher was on hand to slot home the rebound.

It took Clare 15 minutes to get their second score of the game and they could not live with the quality of play that Galway had to offer. The Banner’s Nicky O’Connell kept his side in the game with points coming from frees but goals were proving to be the difference.

The old Galway had returned to their best and the score line suggested that. McIntyre’s men managed to score more in 20 minutes in this tie then they did in the whole game against Dublin.

And it was 28 minutes in when Galway’s third goal came, and Canning proved that he was back to his best. All the work done by the talented full-forward has he shook off the Clare defender and Canning curled his shot past Phillip Brennan in the Clare goal.

The Tribesmen were not holding back and they put down their foot when it came to scores. Andy Smith, Hayes, Canning and Farragher helped their side into half-time with a commanding score of 3-13 to 0-12

The second half started as the first did. Clare came out the brighter and they score the first point through Caimin Morey but Canning and Tannian replied for the home side, but the game was all but ended on the 40 minute mark. James McInerney was given a start red for his tackle on Joe Canning when the full-forward was running through on goal.

Alan Kernis and Joe Gantley got in on the scoring act and by now five of the Galway’s forwards had all scored, as well as their two midfielders.

It was well and truly finished and there was still 17 minutes left on the clock. Again the long ball was fired into the Galway full-forward and Kerins was on hand to fire his effort into the left hand corner of the net and kill off any chance of a miraculous comeback by Clare.

Galway Scorers: J Canning 1-9, G Farrgher 1-4, D Hayes 1-3, Alan Kerins 1-2, J Gantley 0-2, I Tannian 0-1, D Burke 0-1, A Smith 0-1, J Regan 0-1.

Clare Scorers: N O’Connell 0-6, C McGrath 0-5, C Morey 0-3, J Conlon 0-2, C McInerney 0-1, F Lynch 0-1, L Markham 0-1.

Galway: J Skehill, F Moore, S Kavanagh, D Collins, D Barry, T Og Regan, A Cullinane, D Burke (, A Smith, J Gantley, G Farragher , I Tannian, D Hayes, J Canning, A Kerins. Subs: B Daly for Burke, J Regan for Gantley, A Harte for Farragher, K Hynes for Cullinane.

Clare: P Brennan, P Vaughan, C Dillon, C Cooney, P O’Connor, P Donnellan, J McInerney, J Clancy, N O’Connell, J Conlon, F Lynch, D McMahon, C McInerney , C Morey, C McGrath. Subs: B Bugler for Vaughan, L Markham (0-1) for Clancy, S Collins for Lynch, C O’Donovan for McMahon, G Quinn for Donnellan

Referee: D Kirwan (Cork)

CLARE v GALWAY

The counties have clashed twelve times in the championship with Clare holding an 8-3 lead with one draw. They last met in the All-Ireland qualifiers two years ago when Galway won by 2-18 to 1-11.

Last Five Championship Clashes

Galway 2-18 Clare 1-11 (2009 qualifiers)

Clare 2-10 Galway 0-14 (2007 qualifiers)

Galway 1-15 Clare 2-11 (2003 qualifiers)

Clare 1-15 Galway 0-17 (2002 All-Ireland quarter-final)

Clare 3-18 Galway 2-14 (All-Ireland quarter-final) Replay

How they got here…

Tipperary 4-19 Clare 1-19 (Munster semi-final)

***

Galway 4-17 Westmeath 2-14 (Leinster quarter-final)

Dublin 0-22 Galway 2-7 (Leinster semi-final)