By Pádraic Ó Ciardha

THE away jerseys and the Factor 50 will both be in the bag this Saturday as the Galway senior footballers take their first trip out of Connacht in this championship campaign and head to Cusack Park in Mullingar to take on Dessie Dolan’s Westmeath.

After the torrid rain and, let’s be honest, torrid enough football that marked the Tribesmen’s opening game in Group 2 of the All-Ireland SFC against Tyrone, the Galway management, players and supporters will be hoping for something a bit more seasonal to kick off the June Bank Holiday weekend.

A win on Saturday (5pm) will keep Galway on track for top spot in the group and a direct path to an All-Ireland quarter-final, something that would make a repeat of last year’s journey all the way to the decider a whole pile easier.

Pádraic Joyce’s men should be heading into the game full of confidence as well. Even if the three-point win over Tryone a couple of weeks ago wasn’t the easiest on the eye, the way Galway managed the game should have pleased the manager.

Once the rain drenched Pearse Stadium before throw-in in that one, and especially once Tyrone were reduced to 14-men, it was always going to be a case of minimising the mistakes for Galway and keeping the opposition at arm’s length. Yes, Galway probably went too far in terms of caution and, yes, they failed to go for the kill when they had the chance, but they had a handle on their opponents throughout and whenever Tyrone looked like clawing their way back level, Galway came up with a response and protected their lead.

Saturday should offer the Tribesmen the opportunity to open up a little more and, hopefully, they’ll respond by going for the jugular when the chance presents itself.

That being said, Joyce will have warned his players against taking Westmeath lightly. There’s no denying that when the draw was made, last year’s Tailteann Cup winners were seen as the probable whipping boys in a very tough-looking group. Last Saturday’s performance against Armagh will have made people sit up and take notice, however. Having led for most of the match, Westmeath were very unlucky to come out of the Athletic Grounds empty-handed with Conor Turbitt’s late goal propelling Armagh to a 1-13 to 1-12 win.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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