Derry to have better of balance of deficiencies

As has been pointed out for most of the week, tomorrow's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football semi-final between Derry and Galway is a rather less glamorous affair than next week's encounter between Kerry and Kildare.

Even in the context of this weekend, there's probably more interest in this afternoon's Clare-Offaly match. In years gone by this fixture would have been of curiosity value as an example of the one-in-three year chance for a Connacht or Ulster team to reach an All-Ireland final.

Things have changed this decade. Ulster leads the way in All-Ireland wins with four and for the past two years, the Connacht champions have beaten both their Leinster and Munster counterparts. Over the eight years of the decade, semi-final meetings between Connacht/Ulster counties and Munster/Leinster have divided nearly equally (five-seven).

Nobody would be surprised were tomorrow's winners to beat next week's at the end of September, although a first title for the west in 32 years would be the final piece in the jigsaw of football's egalitarian age.

Galway do represent the outsiders in this year's championship. Aside from the lack of recent tradition, they look the most fragile of the four semi-finalists. Whereas the defeat of Mayo was a good win achieved with some style, matches since have been unconvincing.

Leitrim were unable to mount much of a challenge and Roscommon mounted too much of one for a side which had just slipped into Division Four and which had London as their only championship scalp in five years until this season.

The graft of coming through the Connacht final as painstakingly as they did will probably have benefitted Galway in terms of crisis-management, but the flaws on view don't inspire confidence for the sort of tight, edgy match that is likely tomorrow.

To need as much possession as Galway did to put away Roscommon was worrying. It can be argued that they showed a bit of stomach in equalising the matches at full time in both draw and replay, but their status relative to Roscommon was always going to give them an edge at the stage of the match when self-belief would be important.

Derry, with half an All-Ireland winning team, will be the side which more fundamentally expects to win tomorrow. Galway's nerve will have to hold steady.

That has not been the case in relation to the most important function of the team. Despite an array of elusive forwards and penetrative routines, Galway have failed to achieve anything like an acceptable ratio of points to wides. Twenty points, 20 wides in the Connacht replay - allowing for the extra half hour - wasn't just evidence of uninhibited shooting but inaccuracy from good positions.

It is a flaw which more than any other can undermine their efforts tomorrow.

Derry on the other hand have shown an ability to come out of tight matches with their noses in front. Whether it was the stalemate-breaking point against Armagh or the decisive goal in the Ulster final against Donegal - both scored by Joe Brolly - Derry have shown an ability to take the scores which win matches. This represents a departure for a team whose failures in recent years have been as spiritual as technical. Derry have looked more capable when the hammer has come down.

Despite an impressive-looking cast, the Ulster champions' forward lines can struggle to make an impact. In this regard, the return of Enda Gormley sends out mixed signals. Gormley, who retired as a selector to re-join the panel, is by all accounts in excellent form, but resurrecting experienced players in place of promising young ones can be a gamble.

Galway's defence isn't happiest in the face of a physically assertive attack, whereas Derry's half backs won't like facing a running attack. Given that such tactics are awaiting both teams, the result will hinge on what team copes better with their shortcomings.

Dermot Dougan, flanked by Eamonn Burns and Gary McGill, will bother Galway's half backs whose pivot John Divilly is fresh from a disquieting time in the Connacht final when his task of marking Fergal O'Donnell was complicated by injury.

At the other end, Henry Downey has to cope with Jarlath Fallon whose footballing skills are in full remission after the rugby season and who showed a fair resolve when recovering from a rash of early wides to kick the decisive points in extra time.

Centrefield will be important in the middle of two anxious defences and here, Anthony Tohill and Enda Muldoon - while not invincible - look a more potent pairing than an injury-troubled Kevin Walsh and Sean O Domhnaill.

There is also more reason to feel confident about Derry's defence. Sean Lockhart is a fine player who has performed with style and effect at full back and he is well supported by the McKeever brothers.

Galway may create more chances than Derry, but the belief here is that the Ulster champions will do better with what comes their way.