Wide boys Galway turn it around

Galway showed a new side in yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland semi-final. After all those matches of motoring to the front and taking the foot off the pedal, John O'Mahony's men decided to do it the other way around. So effective was the foot-off-the-pedal stuff that people began to leave the ground in the last quarter, convinced they wouldn't be seeing Galway again in this year's championship.

It would be hard to blame them, as their conviction was probably widely shared among the crowd of just over 40,000 at Croke Park. This was the situation. Having looked distinctly off-key for the most of the match, Galway trailed Derry by five points.

None of their big guns were firing. Padraig Joyce was being well marked; the decision to start Jarlath Fallon had looked ill-judged (if he was match-fit, his form has taken a dip since the Cork match five weeks ago) and he had been replaced; and Michael Donnellan had failed to make the sort of impact necessary to turn the game..

An alien would have assumed, inter alia, that Derry were the team with the ace forwards as by the 40th minute, all of them had scored from play, whereas only two of Galway's had managed that particular trick but otherwise the attack had stuttered and racked up an increasingly fatal-looking collection of wides.

Derry captain Anthony Tohill stepped up in the 53rd minute and nailed a free to put his team five points clear, 1-10 to 0-8. It wasn't so much the margin at that stage as what happened immediately afterwards that gave Galway the appearance of being finished.

For most of the third quarter, Galway registered desperate wides.

Lovely, swift breaks from defence all the way up the field ended in crushing disappointment with poor marksmanship or snatched opportunities. Kieran Fitzgerald, the least troubled of the full-back line, used his pace to penetrate Derry's defence but instead of looking for a supporting forward, blazed wide.

Tommy Joyce, whose shooting lacked conviction all afternoon, nearly struck it rich by accident when another shot falling short lost Derry goalkeeper Owen McCloskey in the sun and came back off the bar. Almost inevitably, no one was there.

What now appeared inescapable was that Galway had lost the will to survive. Having dominated much of the play they had committed the cardinal - and for them uncharacteristic - error of not making it count on the board, they were demoralised and there for the taking.

Derry, on the other hand, had hit tellingly on the break, got six points from play from a hitherto less than prolific half forward line and were on the way to a first final in eight years. Perhaps the decision - subconscious or otherwise - to drop back on their lead and surrender space was only storing up trouble but they're not a side you imagine losing a lead like that.

So that's the position in the 57th minute when we resume the narrative. Derek Savage - the one flickering light up front for Galway - gets on the end of another pacy move by Paul Clancy and Kevin Walsh. He points for his side's first score in 18 minutes.

For whatever reason this simple kick triggers the comeback. Maybe Derry got vertigo with the match at their mercy. Certainly, their growing tentativeness in going forward was drawing their opponents down on them in waves. Maybe Galway were always going to click at some stage. But anyway it happened.

Gradually the lead crumbled. Padraig Joyce started kicking his frees - one after nearly traversing the pitch from the spot where it had been awarded. Seβn De Paor snapped up a loose ball, blindsiding the Derry defence as he swooped in after a Galway attack, looked to have run out of gas, and pointed. The westerners were buzzing now and if a Paul Clancy wide conjured up old ghosts, they had momentum.

The key score came in the 66th minute. Savage again showed for a ball shuttling up from the back. He skinned Sean Martin Lockhart and fisted a well-judged ball in for the oncoming Matthew Clancy. The substitute had little room but sidestepped on to his left foot and the clinically took his goal.

It was now hard to remember the governing mood of less than 10 minutes previously. Galway were rampant and Derry crumpled.

Eamonn Coleman's feeling that the match had come a year too soon for Derry probably had validity although they can return to Croke Park as often as they like and will do well to be in as good a position again even if they do end up winning.

They were very impressive for a long time. The consensus view that their forwards would struggle even if their defence restricted Galway didn't come to pass in the initial stages. They took chances, while Galway were blowing theirs as wing backs de Paor and Declan Meehan launched multiple attacks down the wings.

Derry moved crisply on the break. Paddy Bradley kicked two fine points, as did Johnny McBride. Dermot Dougan finally delivered a scoring display with three well taken points. If Enda Muldoon disappointed overall, he still managed to knock off the goal that for a long time looked to be the decisive score.

Gary Coleman cradled his face in his hands after unleashing a 27th-minute kick that went too long. Gary Fahey had plenty of notice of its arrival but Muldoon filched the dropping ball, turned and finished to the net.

This ended a phase when Galway had strung together enough scores to hit the front. Derry were back in control, with their opponents growing more and more frustrated, not least by referee Michael Collins's rigorous imposition of the over-holding rule.

Centrefield was going to be an important indicator in this match and it ended up unpredictably. Fergal Doherty, the teenage prodigy Derry have unearthed in the sector, outshone his senior partner Tohill, who was very subdued.

For a long time he was the most prominent of the four on show.

Michael Donnellan had difficulty launching himself from the middle but by the end of it all, the match had worked out best for Kevin Walsh.

The veteran centrefielder has been the subject of widespread assumption that he wouldn't last a full match but no Galway player had a more consistent 70 minutes.

Problems abounded up front. Padraig Joyce was well marshalled by Kevin McCloy and then Gary Coleman. With Fallon struggling, the centre of Galway's attack made little impact and even when Joyce moved out to the 40, Derry squeezed the space available.

Their forwards should have made more of the opportunities available.

Alan Keane smothered a close-in attempt from Gavin Diamond. Dermot Dougan took a point when a goal was on and Muldoon kicked a dreadful wide with Galway at sixes and sevens.

It was an unusual conclusion. Galway have rarely come from behind at the end of the match to win. But the run was timed well and the county is in its third All-Ireland final in four years.