Kevin O’Brien reports from Bord na Mona O’Connor Park, Tullamore
GALWAY BOSS MICHEAL Donoghue was quietly satisfied to leave Tullamore with their first two points of the Leinster SHC round-robin campaign last night.
It was by no means a vintage display by Galway but they still put 5-18 past a spirited Offaly side that battled gamely for the first three-quarters of the game.
Bord na Mona O’Connor Park has been a happy hunting ground for the Tribesmen in recent times. 12 months ago they took Dublin for 2-28 in the Leinster opener, before failing to raise another green flag for the remainder of the competition.
They plundered in five goals on their return to the venue, with Joseph Cooney, Brian Concannon (twice), Conor Whelan and Jason Flynn all firing past Eoghan Cahill.
On another day Joe Canning might have finished with a hat-trick, but Cahill had other ideas in the Offaly net.
The Tribesmen ended their four-game championship run without a goal in emphatic fashion, but Donoghue says it wasn’t a statistic that overly concerned his side.
“It was obviously something we were conscious of last year. It wasn’t that we weren’t creating the goal chances. It is a work-on. Ye boys (the media) keep highlighting it as well for us,” he smiled.
“With the forwards we have they are well capable of creating goal chances. Today we were just lucky that the boys took them.
“The goal before half-time gave us that bit of a cushion and we pushed on then in the second half.
“The keeper made a great save from Joe’s peno. If we had gotten that early on there might have been a bit more daylight between the sides.
“Some of our forward play was very good in the second half.”
He was impressed with Concannon, a newcomer on the Galway panel this season. The Killimordaly forward won an All-Ireland minor crown in 2015 and joins an already formidable attack.
“He took his opportunity,” said Donoghue. “He had been going well in training and deservedly started. Took his scores well. Worked hard.”
Galway avail of their bye in the coming week before they host Kilkenny in the first ever Leinster championship game to take place at Pearse Stadium. They’ll play three games in three weeks with the hope of making a provincial decider on 1 July.
“That’s just the draw. We have three on the spin then. It’s the same for everyone really. We’ll look forward to bringing Kilkenny to Galway.”
Donoghue believes his side will only benefit from the game-time over the coming weeks.
“We’d worked hard to get up to a level on the training ground. Our own internal games, we needed that competitive game to get us up another notch. Hopefully that will stand to us the next time.”
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