The Galway footballers will face a stiff assessment of their credentials this Sunday in Tuam Stadium when they face table toppers Tyrone (2.30pm ) in round five of the National Football League.
Fresh from their encouraging win over Meath last weekend, the team management is hoping all players involved with the u-21 set-up will have emerged unscathed from last night’s championship game with Mayo.
Tyrone defeated Westmeath by 2-11 to 0-8 last weekend and have notched 8-50 in their four games to date (averaging19 points per game ). The full-forward line of Kyle Cooney, Martin Penrose and the hugely experienced Owen Mulligan has been in sparkling form and their clash with a likely Galway full-back line of Kieran McGrath, Finian Hanley and Keith Kelly will be intriguing.
Galway selector Alan Flynn acknowledges Galway face a side in daunting form at the moment.
“Tyrone have been excellent all year and they are up there with Dublin, Cork and Kerry as the form sides of the top two divisions of the league. They are playing very good football and they have incorporated a lot of new players into the side while still producing winning and impressive displays. They have scored two goals in all their league games and have yet to concede a goal. They are only conceding around 10 points on average, and scoring almost 20, so they are in top form.”
Despite those impressive Tyrone stats, Flynn is hopeful Galway can push on from last weekend’s narrow triumph over Meath.
“We have a bounce in our step this week and hopefully we can tackle them full-on with the shackles off and tear into the game. We need to take them on and our work-rate will have to be top-class all over the field.
“Unless we have fantastic tackling and working back from our forwards, we will get flooded. In the modern game that is a prerequisite and we did well in that regard against Meath. Both our wing-forwards and midfielders did what we needed from them. We can’t let any team build from the back and next Sunday will be no different in that regard.”
Regardless of the outcome this weekend, Flynn is looking at a bigger picture.
“Sunday will be a tough game, but it is one we are looking forward to. We want to play and test ourselves against the top teams in the country and it is all part of the learning process. We want to build a team for the summer and the Connacht Championship, and the more high intensity and top quality games we can play, the better to do that.”
