Galway 3-22 Cork 4-24
It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Pairc Ui Chaoimh eight days earlier, but Cork boss Pat Ryan was smiling once again after a dominant second half showing from his side.
Indeed, Cork started to turn this game in their favour from about the midway point of the first half and, after a dramatic few minutes on the restart, they effectively had it wrapped up, despite a madcap finish.
Level at the break, Cork’s Sean Twomey got in for a goal after a Padraic Mannion error in the 37th minute, with Galway defender Oisin Salmon issued with a second yellow card for a swipe at Twomey as he finished.
The extra man told immediately as Conor Lehane wheeled away for his second goal of the day a minute later and Cork quickly tagged on three points. Having also got the last two scores of the second half, that was 2-5 without reply.
Galway rallied somewhat but when Twomey hit his second goal late on and Lehane brought his tally to 2-3, Cork led by 11 points.
“The last few minutes, we made a few mistakes but we’ve had a lot of fellas playing Fitzgibbon so they might have been tiring a small bit,” said Ryan, reflecting on his side’s concession of two goals at the fag end of the game as Galway closed within four points before missing a penalty.
“We’re still in pre-season but we were delighted with the attitude shown by the lads again – that’s what we’ve been asking for.
“There were lots of mistakes and there are lots of things to build on. In fairness to Galway, they’re a good team and they came back into it and the crowd got behind them but we hung on in the end and it was a super performance by our fellas.”
Ryan made a whopping nine changes from the side that started the League with a morale-boosting comeback win over Limerick and Cork were slow out of the blocks in front of 8,872 at Pearse Stadium.
Galway were comfortably the better side in the first quarter, with the concession of Lehane’s first goal in the ninth minute barely disrupting their stride.
That strike levelled the match at 0-5 to 1-2 but the impressive Kevin Cooney batted a wonderful goal in response three minutes later after a clever pass from Martin McManus.
Evan Niland excelled in the first half, finishing the opening 35 minutes with 0-8 (0-3 from play), and Jason Flynn’s first of the day helped Galway 1-9 to 1-5 clear by the 18th minute.
Declan Dalton had been helping to keep Cork just about afloat having set up Lehane’s goal and helped himself to a couple of points, but he roared into the game from there and was at the centre of much of the visitors’ best work as they hit five points without reply to take the lead for the first time.
Galway ended their 10-minute scoring lull with three successive Niland points though Cork finished the half the stronger, with the sides level at 1-13 each at the break.
“Declan fought fierce hard, he’s a fierce threat, he can score from anywhere, he’s a great striker of the ball,” Ryan noted.
“The one thing he’s doing, he’s working fierce hard for us at the moment and he’s brought that to his game. He has got himself in fantastic shape.
“Obviously he was left off the panel last year and he has a point to prove as well. He’s got himself in good shape and ready to go.”
Cork maintained that momentum into the second half with the Twomey and Lehane goals and though Galway came strongly at the end, time was always against them.
Having struck for goals through Martin McManus and Brian Concannon, they won a penalty deep in injury time which resulted in Eoin Roche being black-carded for his challenge on Concannon, though Patrick Collins saved Cooney’s strike comfortably.
By then Galway were down to 13 men with Cathal Mannion forced off through injury and Galway having used all of their subs.
Galway boss Henry Shefflin had no qualms with the outcome, however.
He said: “Cork probably did look like the better team in the first half truthfully as well, and I think we were probably doing well to be so close to them at that stage.
“We didn’t get any flow, we lacked energy, we looked leggy and they were winning all the breaks and physical contests.
“At this level if you are off a little bit you’ll be exposed, and that’s what happened and to be fair they took full initiative at that stage.
“The lads fought back well at the end, but up to that point they were obviously far and away the better team.”
Shefflin rejected any suggestion that Salmon’s sending off was a turning point.
“No, I don't feel it was. I feel Cork were probably getting the upper hand, it obviously didn't help us and conceding those two goals so quickly after half-time obviously hurt us bad but I'd felt that Cork had probably grabbed the initiative back from us.
“We started well but Cork were winning the breaks, they had more aggression, they'd more runners and they were the ones that were starting to hurt us and looked like they were going to push on from there.
“It definitely did have a bearing because Cathal went off and we ended up with 13 but there was still good fight in the lads and they got a couple of goals.
“If Kevin puts the penalty away, it's a only a couple of points in the game but, look, the deserving winners were Cork today.”
GALWAY: Darach Fahy 7; Oisin Salmon 5, Gearoid McInerney 6, Jack Grealish 7; Padraic Mannion (0-1) 6, Joseph Cooney 6, Darren Morrissey 5; Gavin Lee 6, Sean Linnane 6; Tom Monaghan 5, Conor Whelan (0-2) 6, Jason Flynn (0-1) 6; Evan Niland (0-11, 0-8f) 7, Kevin Cooney (1-1) 7, Martin McManus (1-3) 8.
Subs: Cianan Fahy (0-1) for Monaghan (HT), Cathal Mannion (0-1) for Lee (43), Ronan Murphy for Morrissey (54), Brian Concannon (1-0) for Flynn (58), Liam Collins (0-1f) for Niland (66).
CORK: Patrick Collins 7; Conor O’Callaghan 6, Eoin Downey 7, Eoin Roche 6; Cormac O’Brien 7, Ciaran Joyce 7, Tommy O’Connell 6; Brian Roche 7, Sam Quirke 6; Declan Dalton (0-8, 0-2f) 9, Conor Lehane (2-3) 8, Sean Twomey (2-0) 7; Shane Barrett (0-4) 7, Shane Kingston (0-6, 0-4f) 7, Cormac Beausang (0-1) 6.
Subs: Luke Meade for Quirke (39), Brian Hayes (0-1) for Beausang (47), Conor Cahalane (0-1) for Barrett (56), Padraig Power for Kingston (59), Colin Walsh for Roche (69).
REFEREE: Johnny Murphy (Limerick).
QUOTE ME ON THAT
“I feel Cork were probably getting the upper hand, it obviously didn't help us and conceding those two goals so quickly after half-time obviously hurt us bad but I'd felt that Cork had probably grabbed the initiative.”
Galway manager Henry Shefflin on Oisin Salmon’s red card.
STAR MAN - Declan Dalton (Cork).
A superb all-round display from Dalton, who helped keep Cork in touch during a difficult first quarter for them. His eight-point tally was supplemented by several assists.
AN OTHER - Martin McManus (Galway)
Galway may have dipped after a strong start but McManus largely maintained his level throughout, finishing with 1-3, and looks a real find for Henry Shefflin.
UP NEXT
GALWAY: Limerick (h), February 26
CORK: Westmeath (h), February 26
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