All-Ireland SFC Round 2A<\/p>\n
Galway 3-21 Westmeath 2-21<\/p>\n
By Cian O’Connell at Pearse Stadium<\/p>\n
On a weekend sprinkled with surprises, Galway left the sun in Salthill armed with a win and a direct pass into the All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Finals.<\/p>\n
Westmeath travelled in great numbers to ensure a sell-out at Pearse Stadium and a late rally from the midlanders trimmed the deficit to two in the last minute.<\/p>\n
From Connor Gleeson’s booming kickout, substitute Damien Comer made an important fetch and Galway moved the ball forward for another replacement Shane McGrath to seal the deal with a fisted point.<\/p>\n
Galway, prompted by the splendid Cian Hernon and Se\u00e1n Kelly in defence, had controlled much of the contest before Westmeath launched a rally in the dying embers.<\/p>\n
The gap was nine, 3-20 to 2-17, but a Jack Duncan goal either side of two pointers from Robbie Forde and Sam McCartan ensured Westmeath were back in the reckoning.<\/p>\n
Galway, though, didn’t panic with Comer illustrating his value when a Westmeath question was posed. A return to Croke Park in a fortnight beckons for Galway.<\/p>\n
Initially, the home team seized control clipping a couple of goals in the first quarter. Fionn McDonagh released the crafty Shane Walsh to mine a seventh minute major.<\/p>\n
With Paul Conroy, John Maher, and C\u00e9in D’Arcy relevant, Galway were dictating the agenda, adding an 11th minute goal courtesy of the excellent Hernon.<\/p>\n
When D’Arcy pointed, Galway were 2-4 to 0-2 clear, but Westmeath remained spirited. Senan Baker pointed following a mark before the industrious Ronan Wallace struck a 20th minute goal.<\/p>\n
For the rest of the first half both counties enjoyed bursts of scores with Westmeath trailing by four as the interval approached. Galway, though, concluded the opening period with a critical goal as Walsh’s delivery was palmed to the net by Matthew Tierney.<\/p>\n
That effort meant Galway were 3-9 to 1-8 ahead at the turnaround. When the action recommenced, Westmeath’s challenge was being fended off by a seasoned Galway outfit, who led 3-16 to 1-14 in the 55th minute.<\/p>\n
Kevin O’Sullivan, John Heslin (free), and McCartan pointed to bring Mark McHugh’s lively team within five. Galway, though, summoned a reply as Conroy, McGrath, Walsh (free), and Daniel O’Flaherty registered points.<\/p>\n
Galway were nine clear, but Westmeath did finish smartly. Duncan’s goal brought hope. Galway, though, stayed cool, and Padraic Joyce’s charges head for GAA headquarters heartened.<\/p>\n
Scorers for Galway: Shane Walsh 1-4 (1f), Matthew Tierney 1-2, Paul Conroy 0-5 (1 2pt), Cian Hernon 1-0, Rob Finnerty 0-3, C\u00e9in D’Arcy and Shane McGrath 0-2 each, Kieran Molloy, Se\u00e1n Kelly, and Daniel O’Flaherty 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
Scorers for Westmeath: Ronan Wallace 1-2 (1 2pt), Sam McCartan (1 2pt) and John Heslin (4fs) 0-4 each, Jack Duncan 1-0, Robbie Forde (2pt), Brandon Kelly, Tadhg Baker, and Senan Baker (1m) 0-2 each, Ray Connellan, Brian Cooney, and Kevin O’Sullivan 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
Galway: Connor Glesson; Jack Glynn, Cian Hernon, Liam Silke; Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Se\u00e1n Kelly; Paul Conroy, John Maher; C\u00e9in D’Arcy, Matthew Tierney, Cillian McDaid; Rob Finnerty, Fionn McDonagh, Shane Walsh.<\/p>\n
Subs: Kieran Molloy for Kelly (5-10), Shane McGrath for McDonagh (24), Damien Comer for McDaid (50) Kieran Molloy for Daly (61), Daniel O’Flaherty for Finnerty (62), Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Maoilchiar\u00e1in (66)<\/p>\n
Westmeath: Jason Daly; Daniel Scahill, Charlie Drumm, Conor Dillon; Tadhg Baker, Shane Allen, Sam McCartan; Brian Cooney, Ray Connellan; Kevin O’Sullivan, Matthew Whittaker, Ronan Wallace; Senan Baker, John Heslin, Brandon Kelly.<\/p>\n
Subs: Shane Corcoran for S Baker (5-16), Harry Niall for Cooney (HT), Shane Ormsby for Connellan (39), Jack Duncan for Whittaker (48), Shane Corcoran for Kelly (61), Robbie Forde for Niall (65)<\/p>\n
Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All-Ireland SFC Round 2A Galway 3-21 Westmeath 2-21 By Cian O’Connell at Pearse Stadium On a weekend sprinkled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-500241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}