GALWAY 2-08 DERRY 1-06
Galway dogged it out at Croke Park this evening to qualify for a first All-Ireland final since 2001.
Manager Padraic Joyce was playing the last time the Tribe made it to the biggest day in the Gaelic football calendar, all of 21 years ago.
Damien Comer proved too hot to handle in the end, smashing 2-2 from play of Galway’s total.
This was the Donegal/Dublin All-Ireland semi-final all over again, which the capital side won 0-8 to 0-6.
That day there was a chorus of boos around the half hour mark, but none came today,
The game followed a very similar pattern to the Derry/Donegal Ulster final, panning out like a long backs and forwards training drill.
But when Galway stole for home with Comer’s 46th minute goal after Brendan Rogers slipped on the turn, Derry had to go at them, trailing 1-7 to 0-4.
They struggled to adapt as Galway shut down the game and held their patience and discipline as they did throughout.
Derry's woes were highlighted by the fact they didn’t score from play between the 12th and 65th minutes.
In the end it was their lack of attacking punch which cost them as they managed just four points from play and two of them came from full back, Rogers.
Derry had hit 10 goals in four Championship matches, but never threatened the majors they required, with Lachlan Murray’s goal in the final play of the game a mere consolation.
The first half was marred by two controversial Hawk-Eye calls, one for each team.
Conor Glass’ effort on17 minutes appeared to be inside the post, on the Hawk-Eye diagram which flashed up on the big screens in the stadium, but it came up as a nil.
And Shane Walsh’s 45 right on the stroke of half-time was flagged as a point, but given wide by the score detection system, when it clearly went over.
The error on the Walsh kick was corrected at the start of the second half with the scores moving on to 0-4 apiece, but Derry didn’t get the Glass call, which wasn’t quite as clear cut, but looked a score.
There were only seven frees awarded in the first half, with just two of them scorable in a real game of chess.
That both fell to Shane McGuigan, but he struck his first wide from 40 metres, before firing one over from 35 metres.
Comer - marked by Rogers for the most part - was the one Galway man threatening.
He fired over two points from play, and had another blocked, which resulted in the 45 that Walsh was eventually awarded.
An indicator of the nature of this game was that the block on Comer came from Derry’s star forward, McGuigan.
Conor McCluskey trailed Walsh and did a fine job on him, as did Chrissy McKaigue on Robert Finnerty.
At the other end Liam Silke picked up McGuigan, with Sean Kelly on Niall Loughlin.
Again, the defenders won out with the way both teams set up helping them hugely.
Derry didn’t lost a kickout until the 39th minute, with Odhran Lynch going short with all but two of his eight kickouts.
Rogers fired over two points for Derry early on, but Rory Gallagher’s side went 21 minutes without a score at one stage.
Derry never really punched the holes they needed and when John Daly, who had a fine match, held up Glass, Galway countered quick with Silke hitting a long ball to Comer.
With Lynch out of his goals, Comer shot cooly to the net from 25 metres out to make it 2-8 to 0-5 on 64 minutes and that was the game up for Derry.
They refused to go long late when Glass was inside, even late on, when probing for points was no good any more.
It was a disappointing end to a fine season, which saw them land a first Ulster title since 1998.
GALWAY: C Gleeson, L Silke, S Kelly, J Glynn, D McHugh, J Daly (0-1), K Molloy, P Conroy, C McDaid, P Kelly, M Tierney, J Heaney (0-1), R Finnerty, D Comer (2-2), S Walsh (0-4, 3fs, 1 45).
SUBS: F O Laoi for Heaney 60mins, B Mannion for Finnerty 68mins, D Connelly for Comer 68mins, Paul Kelly for Patrick Kelly 72mins.
DERRY: O Lynch, C McKaigue, B Rogers (0-2), C McCluskey, C Doherty, P McGrogan, S Downey, G McKinless, C Glass, P Cassidy, S McGuigan (0-3, 2fs), E Doherty, B Heron, S McGuigan (0-1, f), N Toner.
SUBS: E Bradley for Downey 44mins, L Murray (1-0) for Toner 55mins, B McCarron for Heron 61mins.
REFEREE: B Cawley (Kildare)
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