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Galway see off 14-man Tyrone in sodden Salthill

Shane Walsh kicked half a dozen points as Connacht champions Galway did enough to see off Tyrone in wet conditions at Pearse Stadium in Salthill.

Galway led by 0-07 to 0-04 at the end of an eventful opening half which saw Tyrone reduced to 13 men at one stage in a game where outbursts of heavy rain made the surface slippery.

The sides were deadlocked at 0-03 apiece after 12 minutes following a lively opening, with Shane Walsh landing a couple of points from play and Johnny Heaney also finding the target for Galway as they enjoyed the backing of the breeze.

Tyrone kept in touch with Darren McCurry, Darragh Canavan and Cormac Quinn kicking good points before Cillian McDaid went forward to score and Walsh landed a free from 40 metres to lead by 0-05 to 0-03 at the end of the opening quarter.

But then Tyrone wing-forward Frank Burns was sent off for a clumsy high challenge which caught Galway defender Jack Glynn in the face after 18 minutes.

Paul Conroy extended Galway's lead and then after Ian Burke picked up a yellow card for a high tackle on Peter Harte, Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan was black-carded for dissent.

Tyrone kept their shape well while down to 13 men and only conceded a point in that time when Peter Cooke picked off a good effort.

Tyrone finished the half well with McCurry converting a free to cut the gap to three at the interval.

Tyrone outscored Galway by 0-03 to 0-01 in the opening eleven minutes of the second-half with Mattie Donnelly, McCurry and Canavan finding the range, cutting the gap to the minimum after Cooke fisted over an effort for Galway.

Efforts from Walsh and Matthew Tierney extended Galway’s lead to 0-10 to 0-07 at the end of the third quarter.

The sides exchanged points three times in the next seven minutes with Conroy, McDaid and Rob Finnerty scoring for the Tribesmen, while Tyrone kept in touch with efforts from McCurry, Conor Meyler and Harte to leave it 0-13 to 0-10 with ten minutes remaining.

Tyrone twice got the gap down to two but each time Galway responded with a score to take a goal lead into five minutes of stoppage time and Walsh made it safe with his sixth point and while McCurry got the gap back to three again in the dying moments, they never looked like getting the goal to draw the match.

Galway: Connor Gleeson; Jack Glynn, Sean Kelly, Johnny McGrath; Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Cillian McDaid (0-02); Paul Conroy (0-02), John Maher; Matthew Tierney (0-01), Johnny Heaney (0-01), Peter Cooke (0-02); Ian Burke, Damien Comer (0-01), Shane Walsh (0-06, 0-04f). Subs: Cathal Sweeney for Glynn (19), Rob Finnerty (0-01) for McHugh (35+3), Tomo Culhane for Burke (half-time), Cian Hernon for Maher (40).

Tyrone: Niall Morgan; Michael McKernan, Ronan McNamee, Padraig Hampsey; Conor Meyler (0-01), Cormac Quinn (0-01), Peter Harte (0-01); Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick; Frank Burns, Michael O'Neill, Joe Oguz; Darren McCurry (0-07, 0-05f), Mattie Donnelly (0-01), Darragh Canavan (0-02f). Subs: Sean O’Donnell for Oguz (50), Niall Devlin for O’Neill (57), Kieran McGeary for O’Donnell (57, blood), Michael McGleenan for McNamee (66), Ruairi Canavan for Darragh Canavan (70).

Referee: David Gough (Meath).

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