Tyrone fall short in group stage opener against Galway

Galway 0-16

Tyrone 0-13

TYRONE came out second best to Galway in today’s All-Ireland group stage round one clash at a rain-battered Salthill.

Galway started strongly and raced into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead by the ninth minute with Shane Walsh (twice) and Johnny Heaney both on target.

Despite the poor conditions, there was some good football played by both teams and Tyrone hit back with a Darragh Canavan free and Cormac Quinn point.

For the remainder of the half, however, a slick Galway side generally had the better of things with rampaging wing-back Killian McDaid and Walsh popping over points before things really went haywire from a Red Hand perspective.

Frank Burns was dismissed for a straight red by David Gough after a high challenge off the ball on corner-back Jack Glynn, and they were reduced to 13 men for a spell when Niall Morgan was black-carded for dissent. That decision incensed the Tyrone supporters in Salthill, but the Red Hands were able to keep the damage to a minimum for the ten-minute sin-bin period.

Galway opened up a 0-7 to 0-3 lead while Peter Harte deputised for Morgan between the goal-posts, but Tyrone managed to get the last point of the half with a Darren McCurry free.

The Red Hands got the opening point of the second half, a fine score from Mattie Donnelly but Galway hit back with a fisted effort from Petr Cooke.

That set the tone for the half as Galway were always able to respond to whatever Tyrone threw at them. Darren McCurry kept the Tribsmen honest, scoring a string of points from both play and frees, but the Red Hands never really looked like conjuring a goal, even after bringing on big Michael McGleenan who was stationed at the edge of the square.

While Galway’s marquee men were relatively quiet up front, Cillian McDaid and Paul Conroy caused plenty of damage in their forays forward with midfielder Conroy finishing his day’s work with three points from play. Tyrone will lick their wounds but will be pleased by the character they showed when down to 14 men, and now they will turn their attentions to a second round clash against Armagh in a fortnight’s time.