Galway make the trip south to take on Cork this Saturday evening in the Allianz Hurling League (7pm ).
A marked improvement in performance levels will be demanded from Galway by their manager Henry Shefflin after a strangely lethargic showing against Wexford last Sunday.
Goals from Cathal Dunbar and Oisín Pepper were the ultimate difference between the two sides on the scoreboard, but Galway struggled to deal with the pace and finesse of some of Wexford’s attacking play.
Speaking afterwards, manager Henry Shefflin pulled no punches in his assessment of his team’s performance, on a day when no player managed more than a solitary point from play.
“There was a lot of positives in the last performance but a lot of negatives today,” Shefflin admitted. “To be fair Wexford outhurled us, played around us, their systems were very good. From that point of view, you would have to be impressed with Wexford. We have a nice bit of work to do definitely.
“Conor Whelan got a bit of a knock in training on Friday night, nothing too major, but he was a loss. But to be fair, Wexford were without Liam Ryan, Lee Chin, and Conor McDonald, so they are in a very good place.
“When I talk about our own performance obviously that’s a reflection of the way that Wexford went about the game. They played the game on their terms to be honest with you and we couldn’t seem to match it whatsoever.”
Another stern test awaits in round four in the form of an unbeaten Cork side who hammered Limerick by nine points last Sunday. Shane Kingston fired in a brace of first half goals before being sent off for a reckless high challenge, so he will miss this fixture.
Conor Lehane’s return to prominence is a massive boost for Cork boss Kieran Kingston, with former AFL player Mark Keane an interesting addition to their forward unit. Shefflin is well aware of how tricky this fixture will be.
“Cork are fairly flying it, and down in Páirc Ui Chaoimh as well. That’s what the league is about isn’t it. It’s about you’ll have the odd bump along the road to see how you react to it, how you recover.
"I think people might have got carried away a bit with the first two performances. After this, we know where we are at and we have a lot of work to do.”
