Galway 3-9
Derry 0-13

Galway footballers showed on Sunday that they can meet the physical demands of an Ulster side and continue to play the sort of attractive flowing football which has been the hallmark so far of the Liam Sammon era.

AWAY . . . Galway's Michael Meehan gets past Derry full-back Kevin McCloy during Sunday's encounter at Pearse Stadium. Photo: Reg Gordon.

This was a major test for Galway and Sammon's men showed that they will go toe-to-toe with any side that wants to take them on physically.

But, more importantly, Galway showed that they will stick to their tactic of direct football and on Sunday at Pearse Stadium they should have won by a more decisive margin.

Indeed, the final scoreline would have been embarrassing for Paddy Crozier's men were it not for the heroics of goalkeeper John Deighan.

The Limavady custodian, who had conceded just two goals in the league campaign prior to this, produced a string of point-blank saves to deny a rampant Galway side.

Galway played Matthew Clancy as a roving corner-forward to great effect and with Barry Cullinane producing a man-of-the-match display in the middle of the field, the Tribesmen had ample possession. Joe Bergin, Clancy, Michael Meehan and Gary Sice were all denied in one-on-one situations by Deighan.

"We took a bad beating out there today," said Derry manager Paddy Crozier. "They could have got another few goals. We were opened up far too easily and there is a harsh lesson to be learned from this," said Derry manager Paddy Crozier, who lamented the loss of the unavailable Fergal Doherty.

"Galway had a greater hunger on the day and you cannot give the likes of Michael Meehan and Padraic Joyce space because they will punish you," added Crozier.

The Galway defence was superb with all six winning their individual battes. "Our six backs gave us a great platform to build on. I thought they were superb. It was important not to concede a goal, while we created plenty of chances," said Sammon.

Indeed, Galway wasted little time in carving the Derry defence and Deighan was called upon within 60 seconds to deny Joe Bergin after a superb pass from Padraic Joyce. The pressure yielded points for Clancy and Fiachra Breathnach before Derry enjoyed their best spell of the game towards the end of the first quarter.

With the Galway full-back line on top, Derry were forced to shoot from distance and Enda Muldoon got them off the mark after ten minutes with a fine effort from 45 metres.

Mark Lynch followed up with a similar long-range effort before the Galway defence suffered a rare breach when Lynch soloed through but his goal-bound shot was deflected over the bar by Damian Burke. But once Cullinane took over in the middle of the field, Derry were in trouble as they were unable to deal with his superb fielding.

Clancy and Joyce combined to send Breathnach through on goal before he was hauled down by Kevin McGuckian and up stepped Meehan to drill the resultant penalty into the bottom left corner, just an inch or two away from the despairing dive of Deighan.