Galway County Call

Galway County Call

Galway Ladies had their first outing in the Suzuki Ladies
National Football League on Sunday when the Div 1 team took
on Mayo in the first round. This was a tough hard fought
game of football played to championship standard in bad
weather conditions. The game was played in Headford after
the pitches in Ballinrobe and Glencorrib were declared unplayable.
Galway opened the scoring with a superb point from All Star
Lisa Cohill in the early stages. Cora Staunton then pointed
a free and in the 8th minute that same lady got her fist
to a long ball in from Diane O’ Hora which ended in the
Galway net. Galway then took charge and played some fine
football with points coming from an outstanding Geraldine
Conneally, Philomena Flaherty and Lisa Cohill. In the 22nd
minute Niamh Fahy gave a perfect pass to Edel Concannon
who blasted it to the Mayo net this was followed by a pointed
free from Geraldine Conneally. The half ended with a Cora
Staunton point from a very difficult angle.

Galway went in at half time in a reasonably comfortable
position leading 1 – 5 to 1 – 2 . In the opening minutes
of the second half Mayo piled on the pressure. They were
awarded a penalty after Diane O’Hora was taken down in the
square but Cora blasted it over the bar. This was followed
by a great save by Una Carroll from the boot of Cora yet
again. The Mayo forwards kept the pressure on and eight
minutes into the half Mayo were awarded a second penalty.
This time Yvonne Byrne made no mistake and Mayo took the
lead for the first time 2 -3 to 1-5. Cora Staunton added
three more points to their tally. Galway dominated the play
for the last ten minutes of the game and were unfortunate
that due to the strong wind frees from Geraldine Conneally’s
boot fell short on three occassions. Annette Clarke got
Galway’s only score of the second half from a free in the
last few minutes.

All of this sets the scene for an epic encounter between
these two sides in Tuam Stadium on the 27th June ’04.