Martin Farragher enjoyed a dream senior debut for Galway as his late goal put the gloss on the Tribes’ romp past Sligo.
Galway are now in their fourth straight Connacht final, having seen off the Yeats men for the second year in a row.
The groundwork had been laid by Farragher’s Corofin team-mate Liam Silke, who fired Galway’s vital first goal early in the second-half. Johnny Heaney also got in on the act as Galway eventually strolled to a 13-point victory at Markievicz Park.
Without a win to their name when they were relegated to Division 4 of the National League in the spring, Sligo sought to keep things tight.
They swarmed back into defence when they coughed up possession. The tactic worked well in the opening half as Galway only led 0-5 to 0-3 at the break thanks to points from Silke, Shane Walsh and the outstanding Fiontán Ó Curraoin
With Sligo’s Niall Murphy on target shortly after the restart, that gap was soon down to one but the third quarter performance from Galway was key to this win, and once Silke’s strike found the net, Paul Taylor’s side fell away rapidly.
Galway came into this tussle with a win over London under their belt and Kevin Walsh said he was happy with certain improvements that his side made in their second victory of the month.
He said: “Going in at half-time two up with a breeze like that, you’d probably take it in championship football, so second half we opened up a little bit better.
“You’d still like your conversion rates to be a bit higher.
“We had one or two goal chances that could’ve pushed us on a bit earlier.
“That’s life, I suppose, in the championship. Overall, we’ll take it.”
Kevin Walsh said he was happy with how his side picked their way through Sligo’s tight rearguard action – an understandable tactic considering Galway scored 4-24 in the corresponding fixture last season.
“We knew coming up here that they were going to be defensive and, in fairness, fair play to them.
“I think they’re moving on with the times and they’ve covered up holes that forwards like to get and that’s part of good coaching.
“Sligo brought a bit of that to bear today and it made life more difficult for a while for us, but I think if we got one or two of the chances early on in the first half that we could have got, that might have made it a bit more open.”
Sligo boss Taylor said: “I don’t think the scoreline was a true reflection on the game.
“We didn’t do enough in the first-half but the boys battled hard. I don’t think we got any luck either – that ball that came off the post for Galway’s second goal...
“We had a five-minute period in the second-half where Galway won the game and we lost the game.”
Either Mayo or Roscommon will be Galway’s opponent in the Connacht final on Sunday 16 June and the Tribe’s management will have the chance to run their eye over both teams in next Saturday’s semi-final at MacHale Park.
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