Galway produce stirring comeback to stun Waterford

Galway 2-22 Waterford 2-19

Galway produced a stunning comeback to beat Waterford by three points in the hurling league quarter-final at Pearse Stadium, having trailed by ten points early in the second-half.

Joe Canning inspired Galway's recovery scoring 1-10 for the hosts as they progress to face Limerick in the semi-final.

Waterford stormed out of the blocks scoring six unanswered points in the first ten minutes. Maurice Shanahan got them off the mark on two minutes before two points in the space of a minute from Stephen Bennett and Tommy Ryan put Waterford three to the good after six.

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DJ Foran added a good score before captain Kevin Moran split the posts as he drove forward from midfield. The impressive Stephen Roche knocked over the visitors’ sixth point with Galway yet to register a score.

Conor Whelan was a late inclusion to the Galway starting team and he opened their account in the 11th minute, but Roche bagged his second before Canning got his name on the scoresheet from a free.

Foran and Shanahan (2) put Derek McGrath’s men 0-10 to 0-2 ahead after just 18 minutes, and Galway desperately needed scores but in the 21st minute Ian O’Regan saved Canning’s penalty.

Conor Cooney made up for Canning's miss as the St Thomas' man struck a goal for Galway in the 24th minute after a brilliant pass from Cathal Mannion. This proved the kickstart tGalway needed and they outscored their visitors by seven points to four in the latter period of the first-half to trail 0-15 to 1-9 at the interval.

Waterford started the second-half brilliantly as Tom Devine notched two goals in the space of a minute. On 43 minutes, Mark O’Brien found Devine inside and he beat Callanan to bag his first goal. Less than a minute later, Stephen Bennett played Devine in and he gave Callanan no chance to give Waterford a commanding 2-17 to 1-10 lead after 44 minutes.

But Canning took command after Devine’s goals and four points from the Portumna man got Galway’s comeback rolling. Devine’s point in the 55th minute ended up being Waterford’s last score of the game as Galway steamrolled them in the closing stages.

Substitute Niall Burke weighed in with two points and Aidan Harte and Conor Whelan also pointed to bring Galway within three points of their visitors. Canning blasted a 64th minute penalty to the net to draw Galway level at 2-19 apiece after Tadhg de Búrca fouled Cathal Mannion.

Padraic Mannion edged Galway in front for the first time a minute later before Harte and captain David Burke gave Galway some breathing space. Canning was sent off in injury time after a second yellow card but it mattered little as Galway secured a dramatic victory.

Galway: C Callanan; J Hanbury, Daithi Burke, A Harte (0-2); P Mannion (0-1), G McInerney, P Killeen; A Tuohy, J Coen; J Cooney, J Canning (1-10, 0-4 frees), David Burke (0-1); C Whelan (0-3), C Cooney (1-0), C Mannion (0-2). Subs: T Monaghan (0-1) for Hanbury (23 mins), N Burke (0-2) for J Cooney (54 mins), S Maloney for C Cooney (68 mins).

Waterford: I O'Regan; K Bennett, S McNulty, S Fives; C Gleeson, T de Búrca, S Keating (0-1); K Moran (0-2), M O'Brien (0-1); Stephen Bennett (0-1), S Roche (0-3), DJ Foran (0-2); T Ryan (0-2), M Shanahan (0-6, 0-4 frees), T Devine (2-1).

Subs: Shane Bennett for Foran (52), N Connors for Keating (55), M Walsh for O'Brien (58), B O'Halloran for Ryan (59), P Mahony for Roche (61).

Referee: Barry Kelly (Westmeath)