Galway 1-12

Kilkenny 0-9

Eanna O’Reilly in Loughrea

The Galway senior camogie team recorded their second victory of the national league campaign, when defeating Kilkenny on Saturday afternoon in Loughrea. Cathal Murray’s side bounced back impressively from their defeat to Tipperary in round two, producing a very strong second-half display to see off the Cats.

Galway were full value for their win on a day when a terrific third quarter performance saw them open up a lead which Kilkenny never managed to pull back. After a low scoring and scrappy first-half, which saw the sides level at 0-4 apiece interval, Galway went into top gear to score 1-5 without reply and take control of the contest.

Kilkenny may have been off-colour on the day, but Galway’s level of quality was impressive in the second-half in particular, as they never allowed the visitors to get a foothold. This victory sets up the Tribeswomen for two final group games against Waterford and Cork, with the race for the Division 1A title being wide open this year.

On an extremely cold afternoon in Loughrea, it was the visitors who opened the scoring through lively corner-forward Aoife Doyle. Within a minute, Carre Dolan equalised at the other end, with her first pointed free of the game for the home side.

Aoife Prendergast put the Cats back in front when she converted a placed ball, before Dolan pointed a ’45 two minutes later to make it 0-2 apiece. Galway soon had their first point from play, when Ailish O’Reilly sent over a good score from 40 yards.

Kilkenny equalised within a minute however, when Doyle and Katie Power combined for the centre-forward to get her first score, but both teams were significantly off target with their shooting during the first-half: Galway struggled to convert their chances with the wind, as they ran up seven first half wides.

Pictured: Galway’s Orlaith McGrath races away from the challenge of Kilkenny’s Katie Byrne in Loughrea last weekend. Photos: Joe O’Shaughnessy.