Galway 1-15
Waterford 2-8

STEPHEN GLENNON

REIGNING All-Ireland champions Galway were made to roll up their sleeves by a plucky Waterford outfit before they finally emerged with their credentials intact – following a late scoring burst – in this keenly contested All-Ireland minor quarter-final clash at Croke Park on Sunday.

Having led 1-9 to 0-5 at half-time, it appeared the young Tribesmen were cruising to victory. However, a resolute third-quarter fight-back from the Déise – in which they outscored Mattie Murphy’s charges 2-2 to 0-2 – threatened to undo all of Galway’s earlier fine work.

That will certainly be a worry for manager Murphy, who was forced to alter his team at the break after full-back Darragh Burke picked up an injury in the first half. Turloughmore’s Daithí Burke reverted to his 2009 role at full-back, with midfielder Conor Cooney filling the void at centre-back. Jason Flynn was moved into midfield, Shane Maloney was redeployed from corner forward to half-forward, and Neil Keary was shifted from right corner forward to the left, with substitute Gerard O’Donoghue entering the vacuum.

It seemed impractical to make such wholesale switches to the composition of the side to make just one substitution, but given Galway’s dominance in the opening 30 minutes, the minor management team could not have foreseen that those changes would have such a detrimental effect in the third quarter.

And yet, there was an element of good fortune about Waterford’s resurgence. On 32 minutes, corner forward Jake Dillon endeavoured to float over an effort, but it flew below the crossbar, catching Galway ‘keeper Shane Kelly unawares. His attempt to take the ball down saw the sliotar land behind the sacred white line.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.