NFL Division Two wrap: Galway return to top flight in style with 11-point win over Derry

Derry 0-12 Galway 4-11

Galway produced a barnstorming performance to defeat Derry by 11 points at Owenbeg, the big win confirming both promotion for Pádraig Joyce’s side and their place in the Division Two final in two weeks’ time.

Three first-half goals did the damage, with a fourth from Tomo Culhane nailing victory for Galway and leaving beaten Derry’s fate no longer in their own hands.

Derry’s much cherished clean sheet record was ruthlessly dismantled in an opening 35 minutes that saw their opponents rifle home three goals. If the goals provided the key scores, the league leaders ran in an untouchable 13 points up, at 3-8 to 0-4, at half-time.

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And while the visitors were clinical, the home side chose the wrong time to produce their worst half of a promising season. Lacking belief, leadership and guilty of uncommon basic errors, Rory Gallagher’s side, facing a stiff, unrelenting breeze, struggled to play any meaningful football.

Late replacement Lachlan Murray jinked inside and out a couple of defenders to tap over Derry’s first score and level the game at 0-2 apiece in the sixth minute. But after that Derry rarely played their part in a one-sided contest. With star forward Shane McGuigan absent, Emmett Bradley and Niall Loughlin converted a free each, before a late Paul Cassidy point concluded Derry’s poor scoring return.

In between times Galway flourished. Matthew Tierney producing a scintillating man-of-the-match performance and began the rout when he palmed home a Paul Conroy pass in the 10th minute. Damien Comer, unmarked at the back post, blasted into the top right hand corner in the 23rd minute before Dessie Conneely hit their third goal just before half-time.

With that strongly breeze now at the backs, Derry scored first after the break. But any hopes of staging an unlikely revival were firmly slammed shut with Culhane’s 41st-minute goal. It stretched Galway’s advantage to an unassailable 15-point lead and dealt a devastating blow to the Oakleaf County’s hopes of promotion in a year that promised so much.

Gallagher’s men battled on and managed to wipe a little blood off the scoreboard through points from Loughlin, Ciarán McFaul and Niall Toner.

Paul Conroy, the outstanding midfielder on the pitch with three points from play, was shown a red card in the 57th minute but it made little impact on proceedings. Derry’s Gareth McKinless saw red soon after with both sides finishing with 14 men in a game that was far from feisty from start to conclusion.

“In fairness to our lads they put in a brilliant performance in the first half,” said Galway manager Joyce after the win. “They took their chances when they came and to go in 13 points up at half-time, the game was probably done. We got a great tonic after half-time with another goal. Overall I’d be happy enough.”

Joyce agreed on the importance of a return to Division One. “It’s very important,” he said. “We put ourselves down to Division Two last year and it’s great to be back to Division One.”

DERRY: O Lynch; C McKaigue, B Rogers, P McGrogan; G McKinless, C Doherty, C Glass; E Bradley (0-3, three frees), E Doherty; O McWilliams, C McFaul (0-3), B Heron; N Loughlin (0-3, three frees), P Cassidy (0-1), L Murray (0-1).

Subs: P Cassidy for B Heron, N Toner (0-1) for C Doherty (both 46 mins), C McCluskey for L Murray (58), S Downey for O McWilliams (65), B McCarron for E Doherty (70).

GALWAY: C Flaherty; J Glynn, K Molloy, L Silke; D McHugh, J Daly, C McDaid (0-1); P Kelly, P Conroy (0-3); M Tierney (1-3), S Kelly, J Heaney; R Finnerty, D Comer (1-1), D Conneely (1-3).

Subs: O Gallagher for R Finnerty (h-t), T Culhane (1-0) for D Comer (38 mins), J McGrath for J Glynn (47), N Daly for P Kelly (55), S Fitzgerald for S Kelly (70).

Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).

Cork 1-16 Down 1-12

Cork ensure their Division Two fate remains in their own hands after a first win of the season at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday.

But Down have been condemned to Division Three football next season and all the ramifications attached for the coming championship.

Cork held their nerve in an anxious closing spell after Down brought their four-point lead to the minimum with a fine Ryan O’Higgins score after 65 minutes, 1-12 to 1-11.

But, the home side answered in style, points from substitute Mark Cronin and a superb effort from dynamic wing back Mattie Taylor helping calm nerves.

Back came Down with a Ryan McEvoy point approaching injury-time only for Colm O’Callaghan and top-scorer Steven Sherlock to see Cork over the line.

Cork led by 1-5 to 0-5 at the break, Sherlock tipping the ball over the advancing goalkeeper Rory Burns for the goal after 27 minutes.

On the resumption, Cork moved four in front with a magnificent Cathail O’Mahony point after 45 minutes, but Down rallied with a goal from substitute Tiarnan Rush a couple of minutes later.

Cork responded with three points before Down came back again only to be hit by that late surge from the home side.

CORK: MA Martin; K O'Donovan, K Flahive, K Histon; J Cooper, R Maguire, M Taylor (0-1); I Maguire, C O'Callaghan (0-2); D Dineen (0-1), E McSweeney, J O'Rourke (0-1); S Sherlock (1-7, five frees), C O'Mahony (0-3), B Hurley.

Subs: T Walsh for Histon (inj, 5 mins), F Herlihy for Dineen (54), M Cronin (0-1) for Hurley (59), C Kiely for McSweeney (64), J Grimes for O'Rourke (69).

DOWN: R Burns; P Fegan, F McElroy, G Collins; D O'Hagan (0-2), C Poland, C Doherty (0-1); A Doherty, N McParland; A Morgan, L Kerr, R McEvoy (0-1); A Gilmore (0-3, three frees), P Havern (0-3, one mark), C Quinn (0-1).

Subs: K McKernan for McPartland (inj, 23 mins), T Rushe (1-0) for Quinn (34), G McMahon for Burns (inj, 35+4), R O'Higgins (0-1) for Morgan (57).

Referee: B Griffin (Kerry).

Offaly 0-14 Roscommon 2-18

An early-season defining clash against Galway will attract a huge crowd to Roscommon next Sunday for a Division Two promotion shoot-out. With Galway already up, Roscommon will probably need to win to pip Derry for a Division One spot next season and they certainly did their confidence no harm with a very impressive win over Offaly in O’Connor Park on Sunday afternoon.

The final scoreline of 2-18 to 0-14 gives an accurate reflection of Roscommon’s superiority in a game they controlled from start to finish and never looked like losing. Their win was achieved with 14 men for the most part as they lost forward Keith Doyle to a second yellow card in the 14th minute.

That blow, however, didn’t make any difference and at times it looked like Roscommon had the extra man. Their attack was superb here, particularly in the first half. They took a sequence of outstanding points in the first half and Offaly just couldn’t cope with them – Roscommon had just one wide, coming from sub Daire Keenan in the 68th minute.

Roscommon had given notice of their intent from the throw-in. They had four points on the board in as many minutes and were 0-8 to 0-2 ahead when Doyle saw red. Offaly rallied briefly and got the deficit back to 0-10 to 0-6 in the 25th minute.

A debatable goal from Donie Smith in the 25th minute knocked the resistance out of Offaly, with Smith appearing to throw a Cathal Heneghan ball into the net. Roscommon led by 1-12 to 0-7 at half-time and Offaly were a beaten docket.

Roscommon were not as good in the second half but continued to dominate proceedings. An excellent 45th-minute goal from Enda Smith gave them a 2-12 to 0-7 lead and they won pulling up – Offaly did outscore Roscommon by 0-4 to 0-2 in the last few minutes but by that stage, they were only trying to enhance their scoring difference.

OFFALY: P Dunican (0-1, a 45); D Hogan, J Lalor, N Darby; C Donnelly (0-1), D Dempsey, R Egan; C Donoghue (0-1), J Hayes; M Abbott, D Hyland (0-1), B Carroll (0-1); B Allen, A Sullivan (0-1), N McNamee (0-5, two frees).

Subs: J O'Connor for Dempsey, K Dolan for Egan, R McNamee (0-2) for Abbott (all h-t), C Flynn for Hyland (54 mins), J Moloney (0-1) for Donnelly (58).

ROSCOMMON: C Lavin; D Murray, B Stack, E McCormack; R Hughes (0-1), N Daly, R Daly (0-1); U Harney (0-1), E Nolan (0-1); C Murtagh (0-1), E Smith (1-0), K Doyle (0-1); C Heneghan, D Smith (1-3, one free), C Cox (0-5, two frees, one mark).

Subs: N Kilroy (0-1) for D Smith, C McKeon (0-2) for Heneghan (both 50 mins), P Carey for Murtagh (55), D Murtagh (0-1) for Cox (58), S Cunnane for Harney (61).

Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).

Clare 0-9 Meath 0-10

Meath came away from Cusack Park in Ennis with a one-point win over hosts Clare, the slender victory moving the Royal County up the table and well away from the relegation zone. For their part, Clare will now be hoping for a win next weekend, away to Down, to remain safe.

Meath started the better of the two sides and found themselves three points to no score ahead by the 18th minute. Full forward Shane Walsh fired over a 35 metre free off his right foot in the sixth minute while left-footer Jordan Morris added two more scores from placed balls early on.

Clare replied with three wides, over elaborating in front of goal before team captain Eoin Cleary got them off the mark eventually in the 21st minute from play. His colleague Keelan Sexton added two frees to tie matters by the 28th minute and at half-time the teams were level once more at 0-5 apiece, with Cleary adding two more while Walsh and midfielder Bryan Menton were the Meath scorers.

Clare lost two defenders to injury early in the second half when corner back Manus Doherty and full back Cillian Brennan were forced into early retirement, nevertheless the teams stayed close until deep into injury-time.

Clare did take the lead briefly early in the half through Sexton (0-6 to 0-5) but when Bryan McMahon fired over a good Meath point late in the game, the scoreboard read 0-9 each.

Clare goalkeeper Stephen Ryan was dispossessed close to his own 45-metre line by Meath’s Ronan Jones, who passed to James Conlon and the substitute split the posts for the winner close to the final whistle. Clare did have a chance at the death but Gavin Cooney’s scoring attempt was just wide of the posts.

CLARE: S Ryan; M Doherty, C Brennan, C Rouine; J Malone, C O'Dea, E Collins; C Russell, D O'Neill; P Lillis, E Cleary (capt) (0-3), E McMahon (0-1); A Griffin, K Sexton (0-4, three frees), D Tubridy.

Subs: D Walsh for Collins (h-t), C Jordan (0-1)for Doherty (inj, 39 mins), G Cooney for Brennan (inj, 50), J McGann for Griffin (63).

MEATH: H Hogan; J Muldoon, E Harkin, R Clarke; D Keogan, G McGowan, E Wallace; B Menton (0-1), R Jones; J Scully, T O'Reilly, M Costello; J Morris (0-2, two frees), S Walsh (0-3, two frees), C O'Sullivan (capt) (0-1).

Subs J Wallace (0-1) for Walsh (50 mins), B McMahon (0-1) for O'Reilly (60), J O'Connor for Scully (63), J Conlon (0-1) for Morris (67).

Referee: D O'Mahoney (Tipperary).