Galway, who won their seventh All-Ireland minor title last year when they defeated Mayo in the final, got the defence of their title off to a winning start when they defeated Roscommon by 1-13 to 0-8 at Tuam Stadium on Friday night.
It’s not the end of the road for Roscommon as the Connacht championship is run on a round-robin basis, but the reigning All-Ireland champions were on top for most of the contest.
They led by 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval but then pushed on after the restart with three points without reply before Seán Walsh got the only goal of the game after 47 minutes to lead by 1-9 to 0-4.
Roscommon never gave up but were not able to close the gap as Galway ran out comfortable winners to get the defence of their All-Ireland title up and running in impressive fashion.
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It finished all square in the other opening game at Carrick-on-Shannon as Leitrim struck for the only goal of the match in their 1-8 to 0-11 draw against Sligo.
Leitrim were on top for most of the opening half but Sligo landed four points in a row to cut the gap to 0-6 to 0-5 at the break.
Paul Honeyman got Leitrim’s goal after 47 minutes to tie the match at 1-6 to 0-9 before Eamon O’Mahony and Jim Molloy scored points for Sligo to lead by two heading into the closing stages.
But Leitrim finished well and points from David Liu Doyle and James Gilheaney secured a deserved draw at the end of a good encounter.
