COMETH THE hour, cometh Shane Walsh.
Galway’s hero came to the rescue with 0-9 to gun down Armagh last night and save their championship.
The Tribes came back from the dead to stun Kieran McGeeney’s men in Cavan – and rallied to steal third spot in the group of death despite missing TWO first half penalties.
Second half goals from the superb John Maher and Rob Finnerty set them alight as McGeeney’s men wilted coming the stretch – before Walsh’s dramatic winning free after the hooter sealed it.
Maher was sublime and led the charge, while Sean Fitzgerald had a game for the ages and totally nullified Armagh hitman Andrew Murnin.
But Galway were hanging by a thread at the break. A disastrous opening half saw Matthew Tierney and Finnerty both miss from the spot as the Orchard ran riot.
Armagh were already through to the last eight, but approached the game otherwise.
Ethan Rafferty lorded Breffni with three two-pointers as Ross McQuillan won his epic battle with Sean Kelly and scored 0-3.
Niall Grimley grabbed his shot with both hands in the middle and scored 0-3 to give boss McGeeney plenty to think about for the next fortnight.
The Orchard squeezed the Tribes to within an inch of their lives in a sizzling first half performance as Joyce’s men never got going.
They led 0-15 to 0-7 at the break, and 0-13 of that came from play.
If Armagh dominating was bad, missing two penalties was worse as Tierney’s first effort was saved by Rafferty and Rob Finnerty blazed his kick over the bar.
The magnificent Rafferty set the tone with their first two-pointer in the third minute as McGeeney’s men cut through the Galway defence time and time again, as Jaly Óg Burns made huge inroads off both flanks and runners from deep finished the job.
He laid one on a plate for Rían O’Neill to stretch their lead despite being well marshalled by
Cillian McDaid before Peter McGrane quickly followed suit.
Galway were at sixes and sevens, but were handed a lifeline when Burns fouled Finnerty – but Raferty denied Tierney and Maher fired wide from the rebound.
But Walsh got into the game from here and never left it. He fired over a pair of beauties off each foot after Peter Cooke’s whopping two-pointer, but the Armagh train was in top gear.
They kicked 0-5 on the bounce in a ruthless second quarter as the superb Grimley nailed a two-pointer before Turbitt, Ross McQuillan and Cian McConville turned the screw.
Peter Cooke boomed over Galway’s only orange flag of the half but Darragh McMullan hit back with an even better one at the other end to make it 0-11 to 0-4.
Walsh was fouled by Burns for penalty number two, but Finnerty overcooked it and it flew over the bar.
The game looked over when Rafferty’s two point free pushed Armagh nine in front, but the Tribes were far from done – and fired 2-15 in a storming second half to win the game.
Maher’s goal set them on their way when he palmed home after a sweeping move from Finnerty and Dylan McHugh.
Paul Conroy was thrown into the fray and made his mark with a super score and a different Galway emerged.
They took the lead thanks to another 0-4 without reply when Walsh nailed a two-point free and Finnerty and McDaid made it 1-16 to 0-17.
Armagh were on the ropes gasping for air, but hit back with 0-5 on the bounce to rouse their massive support as Ross McQuillan, Rafferty, Tiernan Kelly and Jarly Óg did the business.
But when the chips were down, the Connacht champs never blinked. Cathal Sweeney nailed a score and won the resulting kick-out to play Finnerty in, and he slotted into the bottom corner.
The scores kept coming. Walsh, Tierney, and Céin D’Arcy raised more flags before Stefen Campbell gave Armagh badly needed life and scored, before Rafferty sailed over his third orange flag to level it again.
Walsh and Shane McParlan swapped points as the hooter sounded, before Conroy was fouled by Tomás McCormack and the Kilmacud Crokes clubman held his nerve to win the game.
Armagh went all out to eliminate one of the big threats in their bid for back to back – but boss McGeeney hailed their resolve despite letting the Tribes rise and edge it.
He said: “It was a cracking game, just unfortunate that we made a couple of silly mistakes but it’s par for the course and luckily it didn’t cost us today. so you’re not going to be too disappointed but we still have a lot to work on.
“I suppose we were disappointed that we gave the ball away so much. They upped their aggression stakes and the frees seemed to fall their way then and we just got caught doing silly stuff.
“We got ourselves back into a good position again and gave it away and probably a wee bit of an eye in with the free at the end, but as I said, we have loads to work on.”
Galway 2-22
Armagh 0-27
ARMAGH: E Rafferty 0-7, 2tpf, 1tp; P Burns, B McCambridge, P McGrane 0-1; R McQuillan 0-3, T Kelly 0-1, J Óg Burns 0-1; J Duffy 0-1, N Grimley 0-2tp; D McMullan 0-2tp, R O’Neill 0-1, J McElroy; C McConville 0-3, A Murnin 0-1, C Turbitt 0-1.
Subs: T McCormack for McCambridge 20mins; G McCabe for P Burns HT, S Campbell 0-1 for Duffy 54, C Mackin for Grimley 59, O Conaty for McMullan 63, S McPartlan 0-1 for McConville (blood) 65
GALWAY: C Flaherty; J McGrath, S Fitzgerald, J Glynn; D McHugh, S Kelly, L Silke; P Cooke 0-3, 1tp, J Maher 1-0; C McDaid 0-2, R Finnerty 1-4, 0-1pen, C Darcy 0-2; M Tierney 0-1, S Walsh 0-9, 1tpf, 1f, M Thompson.
Subs: P Conroy 0-1 for Tierney 33mins; D O’Flaherty for Silke HT, C Hernon for Fitzgerald 47 (blood), C Sweeney 0-1 for McHugh 54, Tierney for Cooke 59, J Heaney for McDaid
REFEREE: N Mooney (Cavan)
