The Galway senior hurlers recorded their third league win and secured their Division 1A status last weekend as they battled to a 2-19 to 1-20 victory over Wexford and now their attention quickly turns to another away trip to take on Limerick this Saturday evening (7.30pm throw-in )
Micheal Donoghue has now given game time to 37 players in the five games to date, with David Burke making his seasonal debut at midfield while Michael Garvey, Declan McLoughlin, Anthony Burns, Colm Molloy, and Kevin Cooney all racked up more invaluable playing time.
An opportunistic goal by Burns on the stroke of half-time gave the visitors a two-point half-time cushion, and with Garvey’s long distance free-taking a notable feature Galway were able to withstand the concession of a Rory O’Connor goal and build a four-point lead before Conor Cooney rattled the back of the net from a penalty after Burns was fouled.
The teams meet again in the Leinster championship on May 10 in Salthill and Wexford will be hopeful they can improve their shooting efficiency having racked up 14 wides on Saturday. They still came close to reeling in Galway in the closing minutes but Darach Fahy saved well from a late Mark Fanning free.
Limerick have a game fewer played than any of the other teams in the division after the postponement of their away fixture against Kilkenny, and they will prepare to take on Galway having suffered their first loss of the campaign last Sunday at home to Clare.
Minus a host of familiar names in their starting fifteen, John Kiely’s team spurned a number of goal chances before falling to a 1-21 to 0-21 defeat, a result which still gives Clare, rocked by the news of Shane O’Donnell’s absence for the season, some flicker of hope of surviving in the division after losing three in a row.
They were very fortunate that Tony Kelly did not receive a straight red card for a foul on Adam English before half-time, while Diarmuid Byrnes will miss the Galway game after receiving his marching orders after a melee broke out with a little over five minutes remaining.
With a host of All-Stars still to return to his team, Kiely knows there is work to do but he will understand that running Clare to three points in those circumstances is not the end of the world. The Gillane brothers hit eight points between them from frees while Shane O’Brien looks like he will be a real handful on the edge of the square.
Galway’s last visit south to take on Limerick in the league in 2022 was a successful one but that was a rare victory for the Tribesmen in recent meetings, with last year’s fixture ending in stalemate in Pearse Stadium.
