Galway senior ladies footballers face Monaghan at home in the opening round of the National League this Sunday at 2pm (venue to be confirmed ).
They received a timely boost ahead of this first round of the Lidl National League division one when retaining their Winter League title last Sunday. Stephen Glennon's charges enjoyed a facile 6-13 to 1-4 win over All-Ireland finalists Mayo at Connacht Centre of Excellence, Bekan,
An impressive tally of 4-4 (0-1 free ) from player of the match Sarah Conneally set the tone for the afternoon against a Mayo side that replaced their entire starting 15 over the course of the game - despite competition rules only allowing for five substitutions.
Protocols
In addition, Mayo also broke with protocol by running out their college-tied NUI Galway players, but it mattered little as the Tribesmen led 2-9 to 0-2 at half-time. New captain Tracey Leonard also getting in on the goalscoring act when lobbing the Mayo goalkeeper with a free.
Although Mayo boss Peter Leahy strengthened his side considerably in the second half, introducing many of the players who appeared in last September's All-Ireland defeat to Dublin, Galway continued to dominate with St Brendan's Leanne Walsh also netting in the rout.
Galway (v Mayo ): L Murphy; S Lynch, C Cormican, B Quinn; G Sheridan, N Ward, S Burke; A McDonagh, L Gannon; L Walsh (1-0 ), T Leonard (1-3, all frees ), D Brennan (0-2 ); L Ward (0-2 ), S Conneally (4-4, one free ), C Blade (0-1 ). Subs used: L Diskin for Murphy (HT ), S Molloy for Quinn (HT ), N Connolly for Gannon (HT ), L Coen for L Ward (HT ), E Reaney (0-1 ) for Blade (46 ).
