Leinster SHC: Kildare 1-22 Galway 4-22
The classic banana skin encounter in Newbridge from Galway’s perspective and one just about sidestepped.
That might sound a little strange after glancing at the scoreline, but consider that with half an hour played Kildare led 1-14 to 0-5.
At that stage, we were googling furiously to find out when was the last time Kildare, just back up from the Joe McDonagh Cup, won a game in the Leinster Championship? Turns out it was 25 years ago.
Then Conor Whelan made a charge for goal, burst by a couple of defenders, lost his hurl and got the sliotar away to Rory Burke for a goal against the head.
READ MORE
Galway trailed by 10 points at half-time, but that one goal, engineered by man-of-the-match Whelan, was enough to give them hope.
And after a surprisingly flat and uninspired first half, the Leinster pacesetters duly moved up through the gears to end Kildare’s hopes of a landmark win after the restart.
Whelan was their talisman and finished with 1-3, the same as Burke, while the half-time introduction of Tom Monaghan brought fresh vibrancy to Galway’s lacklustre attack. Monaghan sniped 1-4 and subs Oisín Lohan and Darragh Neary chipped in with 0-3 between them. Monaghan’s 40th-minute goal ignited Galway and there were two more added by Cian Daniels and Whelan.
“Outstanding,” said Galway manager Micheál Donoghue of Whelan’s contribution. “He was probably one of the only lads that was up to the standard in the first half as well. It was a massive contribution from Conor.”
Galway will host Dublin next Saturday in Round 4 when a similar first-half performance won’t be acceptable.
“We were really, really poor,” Donoghue added. “Kildare started the game well and played it on their terms. We were chasing it for the entire first half.”
Donoghue said he left out Jason Rabbitte and Aaron Niland because of their Leinster Under-20 Championship involvement, and confirmed that Conor Cooney sustained a hamstring injury which will be assessed.
It wasn’t meant to be such a dramatic afternoon from Galway’s perspective but they were powerless to prevent Kildare’s great start.
Brian Dowling’s side were sharp and hungry, lorded the possession stakes and boomed everything down long and early on the strong wind towards Muiris Curtin, who filled his boots, scoring 1-3 in the first half. His marker, Cillian Trayers, struggled and was eventually moved elsewhere.
Whelan never let his standards drop, and Cooney offered leadership early in the second half to get the comeback under way.
GALWAY: D Fahy; J Ryan, C Trayers, D Morissey; P Mannion, D Burke, G Lee; C Daniels (1-0), T Killeen (0-2); C Cooney (0-1), C Mannion (0-5, 3f, 1′65), J Fleming (0-1); R Burke (1-3), C Whelan (1-3), C Molloy. Subs: R Glennon for Ryan, T Monaghan (1-4) for Molloy (both h-t), D Neary (0-1) for Cooney (50 mins), C Fahy for Fleming (56), O Lohan (0-2) for Killeen (65).
KILDARE: P McKenna; R Hogan, R Boran (0-2), S Leacy (0-1); P Dolan (0-1), L O’Reilly, Conan Boran; C McCabe (0-1), D O’Meara; J Travers, D Guerin (0-1), G Keegan (0-4); D Melville, M Curtin (1-3), J Sheridan (0-8, 6f, 2′65). Subs: C Dowling (0-1) for Dolan (46 mins), T Ryan for Melville (59), C Smith for Travers (60), E Ó Briain for O’Reilly (65), H Carroll for Leacy (72).
Referee: C Flynn (Westmeath).
