Hurlers relegated from top-flight

DUBLIN 0-19 GALWAY 4-21

Galway preserved their top-flight status at the expense of the Dublin in Saturday afternoon’s Allianz HL Division 1A relegation play-off replay at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise.

The Dublin flame was extinquished just at the three-quarter mark as the Tribesmen struck for two goals in quick succession to effectively leave Anthony Daly’s men with a mountain to climb over the remainder of the game.

The Dubs produced heroics six days previously to force this replay but their was to be no repeat of the Houdini act on this occasion as Galway ruthlessly punished a flagging Dublin.

Dublin had goal chances in both halves – Paul Ryan and Conor McCormack in the opening half and Eamon Dillon and Simon Lambert (penalty) late on but on all occasions they were defied by the excellent Fergal Flannery .

Galway led 1-11 to 0-13 at the break – their goal coming from a dubious Joe Canning free in the 24th minute and it was the Portumna ace whose goal touch began to finally separate these sides in the second half.

His second goal came 16 minutes into the second half when Dublin paid a very heavy price for a bit of indecision when Peter Kelly did not know whether to ‘mind the house’ or sprint for the ball into the corner, that split second delay was maximised by Galway when Damien Hayes placed an unmarked Canning who blasted to the roof of the net from 20 metres to give his side a 2-16 to 0-16 lead.

Was was already going to be a very difficult task became mission impossible when David Glennon finished to the net form after Gary Maguire had parried the initial point effort from Jonathan Glynn to make it 3-16 to 0-16 with less than 15 minutes remaining. And from such a position of strength Galway never looked back.

The opening half was an entirely different matter with the game operating at Championship intensity. The accuracy of Dublin midfielder Martin Quilty was one of the stand out aspects of the opening half as he clipped over three excellent points.

Quilty’s accuracy was matched by that of freetaker Paul Ryan who converted four first half frees and a ‘65’ but Dublin still trailed at the interval by the minimum (1-11 to 0-13) as they were guilty of over-elaboration at times while Canning’s goal from a 20-metre free had the Tribemen in front at the break.

SCORERS – Galway: J Canning 2-7 (1-6f), D Burke 1-3, D Glennon 1-2, N Burke 0-4, C Donnellan 0-2, I Tannian, D Hayes, J Coen 0-1 each. Dublin: P Ryan 0-11 (0-7f, 0-2 ‘65’), M Quilty 0-3, C McCormack 0-2, J McCaffrey, D Treacy, J Boland 0-1 each
GALWAY – F Flannery; N Donoghue, K Hynes, F Moore; J Coen, D Collins, T Óg Regan; D Burke, I Tannian; A Smith, N Burke, C Donnellan; D Hayes, J Canning, D Glennon. Subs: J Glynn for Smith (23), J Regan for Donnellan (61), B Flaherty for Donoghue (67), C Cooney for N Burke (70).
DUBLIN – G Maguire; N Corcoran, P Kelly, P Schutte; M Carton, J Boland, S Durkin; J McCaffrey, M Quilty; D Sutcliffe, L Rushe, R O’Carroll; D Treacy, P Ryan, C McCormack. Subs: S Lambert for Treacy (45), E Dillon for Quilty (57), R Trainor for Schutte (60), N McMorrow for O’Carroll (62), D Plunkett for Ryan (64).
REF – J Sexton (Cork).