Kerry 0-15

Galway 1-10

Paul Brennan reports from Killarney

KERRY SURVIVED A late Galway goal to stave off the Tribesmen in Killarney but the end result in Killarney made little difference to either team in terms of how their Division One campaign ended.

Kerry won but still couldn’t qualify for next weekend’s league final, and Galway lost but still managed to maintain their top flight status. Dublin doing the business against Tyrone ensured Kerry don’t need to worry about an Easter Sunday date with Derry, the day before the head for warm weather training in Portugal.

Derry denying Roscommon the win they needed ensured Galway could get away with losing in Killarney and still stay up. Everyone left Fitzgerald Stadium reasonably happy so, one would imagine.

That late Galway came from substitute Tomo Culhane in the 68th goal, about the first exciting thing to happen in a game that will be quickly forgotten.

With Kerry leaving David and Paudie Clifford on the bench for this, that suggested how much Kerry were all out for the win. Not very is the answer. And still their three-point win somewhat flattered Galway.

The home side opened the scoring through midfielder Joe O’Connor, who went on to have an impressive game at midfield, in one of several positives for the Kingdom. How they coped with life without Jason Foley was another, even if they might wonder would Galway have engineered that late goal had their injured full back been in situ.

Galway hit the front through two Rob Finnerty marks and a Cillian Ó Curraoin point from play, and by the 20-minute mark the visiots led 0-5 to 0-2, with Paul Conroy and Cathal Sweeney also on target.

The second quarter was all Kerry, with Killian Spillane, Stephen O’Brien and Sean O’Shea (free) bringing them back on level terms after 30 minutes, before further points from Darragh Roche, O’Shea and Spillane helped them to a 0-8 to 0-6 lead at the interval.

Kerry started the second half as they finished the first, with O’Shea (free), Armin Heinrich and Paul Geaney sending them into a 0-11 to 0-6 lead, with Galway’s interest in matters above in Celtic Park a little more pressing now.

With the crowd’s interest waning, Kerry sent on the Clifford brothers, with Paudie kicking a point with his first touch, and David latter converting a free.

It was all fairly inconsequential at that stage, with Kerry ahead 0-15 to 0-9, and thinking more about Portugal than Croke Park next week.

Kerry suffered a mild brainfart in the 68th minute when Shane Ryan sold Gavin White short on a restart, John Heaney turned over the ball for Finnerty to set up Culhane for the game’s only goal.

Conroy then pointed to cut the margin to two points but Kerry held on for the win. A win few will remember, same as it was a loss Galway won’t lose much sleep over.

Scorers for Kerry: K Spillane 0-4 (1f), S O’Shea 0-4 (2f), A Heinrich 0-1, J O’Connor 0-1, P Geaney 0-1, S O’Brien 0-1, D Roche 0-1, P Clifford 0-1, D Clifford 0-1 (f)

Scorers for Galway: T Culhane 1-0, J Heaney 0-2, R Finnerty 0-2 (2m), D McHugh 0-1, P Conroy 0-2, C Sweeney 0-1, C Ó Curraoin 0-1, J Daly 0-1

KERRY: Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Dylan Casey, Armin Heinrich, Seán O’Brien, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White, Barry ‘Dan’ O’Sullivan, Joe O’Connor, Adrian Spillane, Paul Geaney, Stephen O’Brien, Killian Spillane, Darragh Roche, Seán O’Shea.

Subs: Paudie Clifford for P Geaney (51), David Clifford for D Roche (51), Graham O’Sullivan for A Heinrich (51), Brian Ó Beaglaoich for P Murphy (53), Ronan Buckley for S O’Brien (58).

GALWAY: Connor Gleeson, Johnny McGrath, Seán Fitzgerald, Eoghan Kelly, Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Liam Silke, Paul Conroy, John Maher, Johnny Heaney, Cein Darcy, Cathan Sweeney, Rory Cunningham, Robert Finnerty, Cillian Ó Curraoin.

Subs: Daniel O’Flaherty for R Cunningham (34), Tomo Culhane for C Ó Curraoin (48), Patrick Egan for C Darcy (48), Jack Glynn for L Silke (56), Kieran Molley for D McHugh (58).

Referee: Seamus Mulhare (Laois)

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!