1. Galway revenge for 2017
GALWAY ARRIVED INTO last year’s Connacht final as warm favourites after accounting for Mayo earlier in the competition, but they were stunned by a clinical Roscommon side and fell by nine points in Salthill.
After a fine league campaign where they secured their first victory at Croke Park since 2001 and lifted the Division 2 title, the Tribesmen looked to be on an upward trajectory before Roscommon derailed their summer.
Today’s win over the same opposition in another dogfight of a game will please Kevin Walsh and his players. The victory also put them level with Mayo on top of the Connacht SFC roll of honour with 46 titles each.
2. Roscommon wasteful in the second-half
Roscommon went in at the interval leading by 1-5 to 0-5 and controlling the game to a large extent despite playing against the breeze. They held possession for 12 minutes during the opening period and were able to penetrate holes in the Galway defence with good lines of running and support play.
The Galway backs stood off their men but that changed after half-time when their tackling improved significantly. Thomas Flynn began to rule the skies from kick-outs and his team-mates were alive to the breaking ball.
The injury to Roscommon midfielder Cathal Compton five minutes before the interval helped Galway no end, while the hosts were left to rue eight wides in the second-half where they didn’t manage a score from play.
Galway outscored the Rossies by 0-11 to 1-1 after the break, including six unanswered during a key stage at the middle of the second-half.
3. Shane Walsh’s brilliant performance
Shane Walsh has often been criticised for not being clinical enough in front of goal but the Kilkerrin-Clonberne man scored eight points from 10 shots this afternoon.
He dropped one into the goalkeeper’s hands in the opening half and hit a wide from play in the second, but otherwise Walsh was flawless in front of goal.
On an afternoon when regular free-taker Barry McHugh missed both his placed balls, Walsh nailed five from five frees off his left foot. His accuracy was a big factor in the Galway victory.
What a sweet kick from Shane Walsh! pic.twitter.com/YqCooPFBfB
— The GAA (@officialgaa) June 17, 2018
4. First team to make Super 8s
Galway become the first side to make the Super 8s, with provincial champions from Leinster, Ulster and Munster to join them next weekend.
Galway will be joined by the winners of Cork vs Kerry, as well as the runners-up in Ulster and Leinster or the side that beats them in Round 4 of the qualifiers.
Having made the All-Ireland quarter-final last summer, reaching the Super 8s will have been their minimum aim for 2018. With a Connacht crown under the belt, Kevin Walsh’s outfit have three weeks to recuperate before they face a heavy schedule of games in the last eight.
5. Roscommon must regroup ahead of qualifiers
Kevin McStay’s team need just win one more game to make the Super 8s, so their season is still very much alive.
They’ll learn a lot from this outing against a steely Galway outfit and, depending on the draw, you’d expect Roscommon to make it to the last eight next month.
A flurry of wides shortly after half-time seemed to suck the life out of the Roscommon attack and even Conor Devaney’s brilliant penalty in the 63rd minute failed to spark his team-mates into life.
Roscommon will have a few weeks off before they return to action in Round 4 of the backdoor and by that stage this defeat should be well and truly out of their system.
How did Roscommon lose this. Unreal
@Shaun Gallagher: Simple really, they lost to the better team.
@Mark Murph: debatable Mark
@Daniel O’Donnell: Ross didn’t score from play in the 2nd half and were outscored 0-11 to 1-1 of course they were beaten by the better team
@Daniel O’Donnell: Galway kicked on when it mattered most. Roscommon are a fine team but didn’t have the impact from the bench like Galway and that’s where the game was won.
@Shaun Gallagher: They missed too many easy chances in the second half
@Mark Murph: hope they win their qualifier they have the quality and attitude to be up there. galway did well in patches but those misses bu Roscommon kept us alive ..jusy like ’98
@Shaun Gallagher: 16 scores to 8
@Daniel O’Donnell: are you brain dead? Galway hit 11 points to one, and if ya are on about missed chances, look at the first thing I said.
What’s debatable about it?
As stated before we began the league the Galway attacking force would prove to good for anybody in Connacht, in fairnrss to walsh he had them setup perfectly to win that province, they deserved every bit of that win on that second half performance and are well on there way to challenging for titles
@Seanie Mcdonnell: ha ha this g