Meath the victims as Galway turn it on

As you do unto others, so shall it be done unto you. The matador sound effects with which Meath supporters had taunted Kerry a brief three weeks before were turned against them yesterday as a stylish and convincing Galway team elegantly played down the clock after an extraordinary end to what has been an historic Bank of Ireland football championship.

There were exceptional performances all over the field but the headliners were Declan Meehan, who gave a live-wire display at wing back, Kevin Walsh, masterful at centrefield, and Padraig Joyce, who was at his most cutting with 10 points, five of them from play in a coruscating second half.

Galway thus became the first team to win the championship after availing of the qualifier system introduced this year - albeit that it wasn't the first time the county has won the title after losing a match. They were awarded the All-Ireland 76 years ago after a committee room wrangle had disqualified all the provincial champions, but we can safely assume that this year's win counts as one of the most satisfying of the nine the county has now won.

"It was sweet, alright," said Galway manager John O'Mahony more than once in the dressingroom aftermath. And so it must have been. The team were distant outsiders going into the match - the bookmakers' odds exaggerating the difference between the teams but reflecting the general assumption that Meath would win.

The two areas where Galway were likely to make an impact, centrefield and the half forwards, both came through for them in emphatic style and to add to Meath's problems, their own half forwards experienced terrible difficulties for much of the 70 minutes. With the middle two thirds of the field a hostile environment, their hitherto sparkling inside forwards were starved of possession and their full backs were subject to intolerable pressures.

Worse was to come for the Leinster champions. In the space of seven minutes, their leading forward, Ollie Murphy had to be substituted with a broken finger and wing back Nigel Nestor was sent off for a second yellow card.

The Meath legend is built on such adversity but not this time. The match had been too tight before the scales lurched for such blows not to have a massive impact, but even before these incidents the match had been slipping alarmingly away from the favourites.

Clawing something from the direst circumstances has been a characteristic of the team but that is because performance levels were lifted. Yesterday that did not happen, as all of their major players chose the same time to bottom out and for the first time in Seβn Boylan's distinguished, 19-year tenure as manager, his team collectively failed to rise to the occasion.

Of them all, it was, ironically, John McDermott - who had had to be tempted out of retirement earlier this year - who performed nearest to his best. He worked hard at centrefield and then got forward in the desperate attempts to turn the match. One of these provided a pivotal moment when substitute Niall Kelly - who can evidently kick like a mule - drove in a long ball which broke for McDermott.

On being challenged he toppled over. Television pictures suggest that this may have had little to do with the challenge but in any case, referee Michael Collins awarded the penalty. In some ways you might be justified for putting your house on Trevor Giles in such a situation. His well-earned reputation for stepping forward when the need is greatest supports such faith. But on the other hand he has missed a penalty in an All-Ireland before - two years ago, albeit with less fatal consequences.

Whether Michael Donnellan's advice to Galway goalkeeper Alan Keane had an effect or not, Giles sent the kick wide - his attempt to place it inside the left post failing narrowly. There was 11 minutes left on the clock at that stage and had the kick been converted, it would have cut the margin to two. Instead Galway powered on and added another four unanswered points to their winning margin.

The error was in keeping with Giles's day. Strongly favoured to exercise a decisive influence for at least some of the match, he found himself in the company of a man in the hottest of form.

Few would have doubted Tomβs Mannion's football ability, but keeping track of Meath's play-maker was a tough challenge. He met it head on and with the defensive alignment cleverly configured to protect his lack of pace, Mannion controlled the middle of his defence.

On his flanks, Declan Meehan rampaged up and down the right whereas Seβn de Paor curbed his adventuring a little. The result was an optimising of the half-back effort. They continually held off their men with the odd exception of Evan Kelly's forward runs, some of which would normally have been points but in the desperate circumstances obtaining were frequently the prelude to some doomed attempt on goal.

Meehan was exceptional, particularly in the first half and might have had a goal in the 67th minute but coolly opted to guarantee a point and push the margin out a little further.

McDermott's display in the centre was in something of a vacuum, as his opponent Kevin Walsh was the dominant figure there. His fully-fit availability to the team has been in many ways the most important aspect of the team's successes. He had, according to O'Mahony, been going very well in training over the past two weeks, and it showed.

Yesterday he worked tirelessly, got onto a great deal of ball and moved it fluently.

In full cry Galway were an awesome sight. It's one football has become accustomed to in recent years but yesterday they rode out the difficult period and never looked back when the pendulum began to swing their way.

Meath seemed flat - as if their semi-final blitzing of Kerry had taken too much out of them.

When difficulties arose, they had none of the leadership figures they needed - or that Galway had in abundance. Jarlath Fallon, after an injury-disrupted season to test the stoicism of Job, he was busy and useful even if not at the top of his game. His words of encouragement in the dressing-room lifted the players and on the field, he led by example.

Galway's bad patch came in the first half and even then, it wasn't without its redeeming features. They created a great deal of chances but failed to take them - often in the most demoralising of ways.

Padraig Joyce gave no hint of what was to come with a couple of ghastly wides, and at half-time the level scoring, 0-6 each, seemed to favour Meath because less effort had been expended in their accumulation.

Neither Graham Geraghty nor Murphy were hacking up but there was nothing too strange about that. One assumed that the chances would come and both of them looked sufficiently sharp to make the necessary incisions when the right ball was directed into them.

Nothing was coming easy however. Kieran Fitzgerald franked a great debut year with a great covering and pacy clearances while the Fahey brothers patiently stuck to their task. Until Meath were in a position to create a decent supply to their top guns, the Galway full backs weren't going to give away anything cheaply.

Meath will see the turning point as Murphy's departure. He was replaced by wing back Paddy Reynolds. In the absence of convincing forward cover on the bench, the question suddenly arose: how were they going to get scores? Slowly and bleakly the answer became apparent. They weren't.

Michael Donnellan made the switch from centrefield in the 31st minute but struggled to hit the rhythms that normally drive his game but others up front set the agenda. Derek Savage's elusiveness turned Meath inside out while Padraig Joyce's four- minute salvo of three points from play demoralised Meath and put the match beyond the reach of all but the most remarkable comebacks.

And on this occasion, even Meath hadn't an answer.