The Galway Senior Camogie team made it three wins from four in the Very Ireland Division 1A Camogie League when overcoming Dublin by 1-14 to 0-9 on Saturday in Dugan Park in Ballinasloe
Galway, with two changes from the side that overcame Clare in the third round fixture, once again finished the first half strongly, but struggled to get scores on the board for the second half, relying mainly on free taker Carrie Dolan.
Dolan had opened the scoring with a free and a 45 inside six minutes before Laura Kelly, Ailish O’Reilly and Jennifer Hughes all added points for a 0-5 to 0-0 lead.
Ten minutes had elapsed before Gaby Couch and Aisling Maher scored Dublin’s opening scores with two well-taken points from play, before Dolan replied with her third of the day to leave four between the sides.
Maher and Dolan exchanged frees before Dolan busted through the Dublin defence in the 16th minute to score Galway’s only goal of the game, leading Galway 1-7 Dublin 0-3 midway through the half.
O’Reilly scored her second before Maher registered Dublin’s first score in 11 minutes with a free on the 25th minute.
Dolan, with two frees and Maher with one ensured Galway were cruising at 1-10 to 0-5 at half-time.
In a low-scoring second half, both sides only managed four points each, while Galway gave game time to several bench players. Dolan was again on target with two frees before Maher replied for Dublin with one from play and a free to leave eight between the sides.
With 15 minutes remaining there was no doubt about the result - Dolan sent over two frees and Maher delivered two from play before both exchanged scores near the end of the contest to leave it Galway 1-14 Dublin 0-9.
Galway now need the win against Cork next weekend to maintain their chances of making the league final. Although Galway have recorded three good wins the last three games, they now need to improve their scoring tally in the second half as preparations intensify towards the championship.
Galway F Ryan, S Healy (C ), R Black, D Higgins, R Hanniffy, E Helebert, K.A Porter, A Donohue, J Hughes (0-1 ), C Dolan (1-10, 0-8F, 0-1 45 ), S Rabbitte, A Keane, N Niland, A O’Reilly (0-2 ), L Kelly (0-1 ), Subs: N McPeake for N Niland 40,O Rabbitte for J Hughes 40, C Starr for R Hanniffy 50 A Kelly for KA Porter 56,T Canning for S Rabbitte 56, L Casserly for A Keane 60, K Manning for E Helebert 60.
Dublin:M Moynihan, A Ryan, A Heffernan, C Shanahan, C Gannon, L Butler, M Kelleher, Z Couch, G Couch (0-1 ), E Jamieson Murphy, A O’Neill, A Gannon, J O’Flynn, A Maher (0-4, 0-4F ), N Comerford. Subs, J Moore for J O'Flynn HT, Baker for N Comerford HT, A Rafter for A Heffernan 48, A Dillon for A Gannon 51, L Robinson for L Butler 56.
