Galway find second wind

There was a gulf in the class of the two teams on display in a windswept Gaelic Grounds, Drogheda yesterday afternoon as Galway comfortably extended their unbeaten league record.

For Galway manager John O'Mahony, however, the bonus from yesterday's demolition of Louth was the return to action of Michael Donnellan.

Louth were the better side in the first half, but fatally, having played with a strong wind on their backs, failed to make it tell on the scoreboard. Ollie McDonnell might have had a goal six minutes before the break, but his rasping shot cleared Padraig Lally's crossbar.

The scores were tied at 0-6 apiece at the break and, from the restart when Michael Donnellan was introduced in place of Jason Killeen, Galway signalled their intent with a point from Paul Clancy within 30 seconds.

Paul Clancy set up Derek Savage for the first goal of the game on 46 minutes. Galway were at full throttle now and Joe Bergin and John Donnellan both scored twice before Donnellan almost shattered the Louth crossbar with a rocket of a shot on 56 minutes.

Louth's best spell of the second half saw JP Rooney and substitutes Derek Shevlin and Christy Grimes score three unanswered points to reduce Galway's lead to 1-16 to 0-12.

John Donnellan completed his tally of 0-6 with a free-kick two minutes from time, for which Simon Gerrard earned a second yellow card. However the referee most have missed the earlier booking as Gerrard played the remaining minutes.

Louth's miserable day was compounded a minute into injury as goalkeeper Colm Nally dropped a ball from Declan Meehan and Padraig Joyce was on hand to tap the loose ball over the goal line.

GALWAY: P Lally; T Meehan, G Fahy, R Fahy; D Meehan, T Joyce, S Og de Paor (0-1); J Bergin (0-2), J Killeen; P Clancy (0-4), S Walsh, L Colleran; D Savage (1-2), P Joyce (1-2, 2 frees), J Donnellan (0-6, 5 frees). Subs: M Donnellan for J Killeen (half time), K Comer for L Colleran (52 mins), K Naughton for J Bergin (64).

LOUTH: C Nally; B Phillips, D Reilly, B Reilly; S Gerrard, N Malone, J Neary; A O'Neill (0-1), K Reilly; D Reilly (0-1), S O'Hanlon, M Farrelly (0-1); JP Rooney (0-3, 2 frees), O McDonnell (0-4), C O'Hanlon. Subs: M Stanfield for D Reilly (half time), C Grimes (0-1) for B Reilly (48 mins), D Shevlin (0-1) for J Neary (60), C Kelly for S O'Hanlon (65).

Referee: C Broderick (Down).