Cork 0-23, Galway 2-15

Ger Loughnane said that anything other than an All Ireland title would be a failure and Galway failed miserably in their first serious test of the qualifiers at Semple Stadium on Saturday evening as fourteen-man Cork marched to a deserved victory and pushed Galway hurling back to the pre-Loughnane era.

LEADER . . . Galway skipper Ollie Canning prepares to clear his lines during Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier at Semple Stadium. Photo: Ray McManus/SPORTSFILE

Not even the brilliance of Portumna teenager Joe Canning could save Galway as the young star almost beat Cork on his own. Canning scored a whopping 2-12 from frees, play, a sideline cut and a penalty and to think that the remainder of the entire Galway panel of twenty players that was used only scored three points between them displays just how bad this Galway performance was.

Cork came into this game on the back of a Munster championship defeat and a mediocre performance in their game in the qualifiers against Dublin, but they signaled early intent when they raced into a 0-4 lead after ten minutes.

It was then a touch of magic came from Joe Canning when he collected a long ball over the head of Diarmuid O'Sullivan and crashed to the net. When Canning scored three frees in a row in the closing five minutes of the half the game was level and although Cork went ahead again, Galway did take the lead when Joe Canning blasted a penalty to the net in the midst of high drama.

Ollie Canning, Adrian Cullinane, Damien Hayes and Alan Kerins were all involved and as Kerins struck for goal, Cork custodian Donal Og Cusack, who had already been booked and warned, was shown a second yellow and sent to the line.

Martin Coleman came on but Canning's penalty was expertly finished and when the half time whistle sounded Galway were two up on a scoreline of 2-5 to 0-9.

Galway stretched their lead to four points early in the second half but a succession of efforts that came up short failed to give Galway the reflection of their dominance on the field as Cork struggled with a player down. However the re-introduction of Cathal Naughton at midfield and the placing of Ben O'Connor on the wing began to pay rich dividends and Cork quickly came back into the game with Joe Deane also causing much problems to the Galway defence. Cork outscored Galway by nine points to one during a fifteen minute spell, the Galway score – a sublime sideline cut from distance by Joe Canning.

With six minutes left to play, Galway trailed by five points 0-22 to 2-11, but suddenly the Tribesmen came back into the game. Cyril Donnellan came into the fray for Fergal Healy and suddenly made an impact catching the ball over the towering Ronan Curran. Donnellan set up Richie Murray for a point and was involved in the thick of the action from there to the finish. Joe Canning struck over two from play and after Donnellan was fouled, Canning pointed the free to leave Galway just a point adrift. Donnellan was unlucky to watch his own effort go just outside the post, but it mattered little when Galway defence fouled Deane at the other end and gave Ben O'Connor the insurance score.

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