Galway will face Roscommon this Sunday, February 4 in Hyde Park in a repeat of the FBD League Final. The fixture comes after the Tribesmen suffered a heavy 0-10 to 2-12 home defeat to cross-border rivals Mayo last Sunday.
Galway were second best in almost every facet of play during this fixture, as the visitors sauntered through a disjointed rear-guard at will for large parts of the game. Padraic Joyce will be particularly disappointed with the time and space afforded to the likes of Fergal Boland, who was a constant thorn in the side of Galway, in terms of both facilitating and scoring.
At the other end of the pitch, Galway were overly reliant on the boot of Shane Walsh to keep them within touching distance, finishing his tally with five points (three frees, one 45' ). Overall, their attack lacked fluidity, with many of the scores coming from pieces of individual skill and long-range shooting.
To compound the problem, midweek Sigerson Cup games mean that many of the Galway panel are attempting to juggle intercounty and intervarsity football simultaneously at the moment. Galway will not hit the panic button just yet however. Joyce's side are still waiting on a host of players to return to the starting panel, namely Damien Comer, Liam Silke, Sean Kelly and Cillian McDaid, and will be a much strengthened outfit once they do.
Roscommon will therefore provide Galway with the perfect opportunity for a delayed kickstart to their League campaign.
The Rossies also suffered defeat in their first outing of the League, falling to a 0-17 to 1-11 defeat away to Tyrone. Roscommon were without their talismanic figure Enda Smith and a host of St. Brigid's players, but would have been hoping for a result considering the red card shown to Conn Kilpatrick a few minutes into the second half. Davy Burke's side also struggled to get to grips with Darragh Canavan who ran riot in Omagh.
Galway supporters will be hoping that their side can start to show some consistency this weekend with a win over their close neighbours.
Throw-in at Hyde Park is at two o'clock.
