Galway 5-18 Kilkenny 4-18: Galway manager Conor Hayes will have cast a wry look at the jubilant throngs acclaiming his team's sensational - forgive the understatement - victory in yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final.
Less than a year ago he acknowledged he was about to walk the plank before hanging on in fraught circumstances for a season that until the quarter-final win over Tipperary had aroused little but scepticism within the county. So the aftermath of this match will have seemed a little unreal. But Hayes has well deserved the break.
Not only did he achieve a famous victory but he also did it according to his stated preferences. This wasn't a craftily planned ambush executed according to a variety of cunning plans. This was a come-and-get-us shootout.
A modest crowd of 39,975 witnessed a frenetic, nine-goal eruption of a match. It was reminiscent of the old days in the 1970s and '80s when Galway, including the teams Hayes played on and captained, would burst out of the traps in August and blitz teams, often unexpectedly.
Adding to the pleasure of this one was it was against a Kilkenny team who as well as being distinguished opponents and a trophy scalp, were owed one for the lowest point in this Galway side's life cycle, last year's annihilation in Thurles.
Now it is Kilkenny who face the questions and the possibility that great and legendary servants like Peter Barry, DJ Carey and perhaps manager Brian Cody may have played their last hands in Croke Park.
In the 28th minute Galway took the lead for the first time since for a few seconds in the third minute. They lost it for only an instant in the 43rd minute but apart from that and despite the operatic grandeur of Kilkenny's comebacks, the Leinster champions couldn't break Galway despite all the pressure.
The high-tempo exchanges confirmed the worst forebodings of the Kilkenny management. Having thrashed the same opposition the previous year there was bound to be apprehension at the possibility of a backlash. On top of that the Leinster champions' form has been subdued this year and Cody had been striving to rekindle the fire that roasted Galway 13 months ago.
Even before the throw-in there were indications the backlash was on the way. As he had famously done as a teenager four years ago against Brian McEvoy, Richie Murray buckled into his marker before the start, a statement that Galway weren't going down easily. But within three minutes they had leaked a goal after a mistake by one of their renowned corner backs, Damien Joyce, and were shortly afterwards forced to switch him off Eddie Brennan, who seized the opportunity to rehabilitate himself with a match total of 2-4 that included 1-2 in the first 10 minutes.
That was the only move Hayes made at the back. Shane Kavanagh moved on to Brennan and - for a central defender - made an improbable success of quietening the Kilkenny man for the rest of the first half.
This achievement was emulated by Tony Regan who played a good match on Henry Shefflin, restricting the great man to two scores from play, albeit that one was a goal before the break.
The match gradually attained equilibrium with Ger Farragher's free-taking hauling Galway back into contention thanks to the increasing incursions of the team's speedy forwards and Kilkenny's tendency to foul under pressure. The win and even the first-half superiority were achieved without a major scoring input from Damien Hayes.
That the team could put together 5-18 with only a point from their most feared forward was unexpected and owed something to Michael Kavanagh's marking and something to the less than premium service Hayes was receiving. But on this occasion it didn't matter.
A Farragher free pushed Galway in front at 0-9 to 1-5 before, not for the last time, the sky fell in on Kilkenny with two goals in the space of a minute.
Farragher got both, the first a crisp finish after David Tierney, excelling in the middle despite the hard work and at times ubiquity of Tommy Walsh, slashed through to set up the corner forward. The second was the first of two created by a penetrative through-ball from David Forde. Hayes got on the end of it, drew a great save from McGarry only for Farragher to ram home the rebound.
That left eight points, 2-10 to 1-5, between the teams. Consolidation and a point or two might have left Kilkenny too much to do although the evidence of the second half suggested that the interval might have been a bit early to call time on the Leinster champions.
Two goals of their own in a minute, again from defensive blunders leaving first Shefflin and then John Hoyne one-to-one with Liam Donoghue in the Galway net, suddenly sobered up the Western rapture, leaving just a score in it at the break, 2-11 to 3-5.
In a way this was good for Galway. Alan Kerins, a constant buzzing threat on the left wing throughout, acknowledged afterwards that they might have been complacent sitting on a big half-time lead. Instead there was nothing for it but to hurl away.
Kilkenny were struggling but their struggle was at times magnificent. A determined pursuit of Galway's lead achieved parity at 2-12 to 3-9 in the 43rd minute but in keeping with the match's abiding theme, the goals began to flow again.
A minute into parity, Kerins ran at the defence and slipped Murray in for a shot on goal well saved by McGarry (who ironically with his defensive cover in bits finally had a chance to demonstrate his shot-stopping prowess) but Niall Healy was on hand to net the rebound.
The tension in the ground was rising by the minute and one consideration governed it. How long could Galway hold on and what constituted a safe lead? The winners responded when the gap was again cut to the minimum with an unanswered 1-3. The goal came when a Kilkenny free was lost to some backchat from captain Peter Barry and the throw-in was flashed down the field to Niall Healy who caught and turned John Tennyson for his second goal.
On Galway drove and Healy got his hat-trick when Kerins again played provider for the full forward to kick in for an 11-point lead with just 13 minutes left.
It nearly wasn't enough. Kilkenny responded fiercely and outscored Galway by 1-6 to 0-1 in the time remaining. Brennan got the goal and replacement Richie Power added a couple of points.
They couldn't quite get there. Brennan might have gone for goal instead of a point and Shefflin might have been better serviced but Galway kept ahead with Kevin Broderick arriving as a late replacement to land his side's only point of the closing exchanges.
GALWAY: 1. L Donoghue; 6. S Kavanagh, 4. O Canning, 2. D Joyce; 5. D Hardiman, 3. T Regan, 7. D Collins; 8. F Healy (0-1), 9. D Tierney (0-2); 10. R Murray (0-2), 11. D Forde (0-2), 12. A Kerins; 13. G Farragher (2-9, eight points from frees), 14. N Healy (3-0), 15. D Hayes (0-1). Subs: 24. K Broderick (0-1) for N Healy (67 mins).
KILKENNY: 1. J McGarry; 2. M Kavanagh, 3. J Tennyson, 4. J Ryall; 5. R Mullally, 6. P Barry, 7. JJ Delaney; 8. T Walsh (0-1), 9. D Lyng; 10. M Comerford (0-1), 15. H Shefflin (1-9, seven points frees and one 65) 12. J Hoyne (1-0); 13. E Brennan (2-4), 14. DJ Carey, 11. E Larkin (0-1). Subs: 20. R Power (0-2) for Hoyne (44 mins), 17. B Hogan for Barry (52 mins), 22. E McCormack for Lyng (53 mins), 18. J Tyrell for Larkin (63 mins).
Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).
Attendance: 39,975.
