Galway 2-11 Kildare 0-8: Following the John O'Mahony era in Galway Peter Ford's reign started with a win over Kildare at Pearse Stadium yesterday in front of 5,000, in a game that never reached any great standard despite very good conditions. Ford was delighted to get off to a winning start but Galway will not be reading too much into this display as Kildare were poor.
Galway, with Padraic Joyce rested and Michael Donnellan's future uncertain, held too much firepower up front with Noel Meehan, who captained Caltra to their All-Ireland success last year, laying down a strong claim to a permanent place in the side. He crowned an accomplished display with 1-3 from play, while at midfield Niall Coleman made an impressive debut.
Galway never looked threatened by a Kildare side who kicked some appalling wides. In the end Padraig Nolan's men, who trailed by 0-7 to 0-3 at the break, shot 17 wides and only two players scored from play.
Micheál Meehan gave the Kildare defence a torrid time, kicking two from play and also adding a free as Galway at one stage kicked four points without reply. Derek Savage also got in on the act before the break but Kildare's hopes suffered a big blow when full forward Ronan Sweeney was penalised for over-carrying with only goalkeeper Brian O'Donoghue to beat.
With the score 0-7 to 0-3 at the break, the crowd anticipated a strong Kildare fightback, especially as they had the wind behind them and had brought on the experienced Glenn Ryan. But it was Galway who again seized the initiative, with Noel Meehan kicking a superb point from the right a minute after he saw an effort come back off the crossbar.
Savage and Joe Bergin put Galway in control as they led by 0-10 to 0-3 after 42 minutes. Kildare struggled to lift the pace but a pointed free from Tadgh Fennin and another by Derek McCormack gave them hope as they reduced the deficit to 0-10 to 0-5.
Midfielder John Doyle kicked the first of his two points going into the final quarter to reduce the margin to four but just when it seemed their revival was about to set up a tight finish, Noel Meehan decided the issue. Corner forward Kevin Brady, who had a good final quarter, sent Matthew Clancy away and his delivery was expertly fisted to the net by Meehan.
That put Galway 1-10 to 0-6 in front with nine minutes left and they closed out the game four minutes later when Brady drove into the bottom right corner after a mistake by David Hughes.
GALWAY: B Donoghue; V Feeney, K Fitzgerald, C Monaghan; D Meehan, T Joyce, D Burke; J Bergin (0-1), N Coleman; D Savage (0-3), P Clancy (0-1), J Devane; M Meehan (0-3, one free), N Meehan (1-3), K Brady (1-0). Sub: M Clancy for M Meehan (51 mins).
KILDARE: E Murphy; E Callaghan, D Hughes, A McLoughlin; A Rainbow, M Foley, D Lyons; K Brennan, J Doyle (0-2); K Ennis, R Glavin, D McCormack (0-2); T Fennin (0-3, frees), R Sweeney, J O'Donoghue (0-1). Subs: G Ryan for Lyons (half-time), T Archibald for O'Donoghue (39 mins), J Kavanagh for Ennis (51 mins).
YELLOW CARDS: None. RED CARDS: None.
Referee: Seamus White (Donegal).
