Galway hit four goals in a six-minute spell early in the second half en route to a 27-point win over a sorry London in Ruislip this afternoon.
The Connacht champions were up and running thanks to an early Robert Finnerty mark, which was followed up by a John Daly score.
London registered the opener just before the 10-minute mark thanks to Daniel Clarke, but Galway hit a purple patch and found themselves four up thanks to the efforts of Finnerty, Johnny Heaney and Cathal Sweeney.
Cillian Ó Curraoin extended the favourites' lead to five and the Tribesmen were in control, shutting down and turning over every promising London break.
A free from Liam Gallagher got London's side of the scoreboard moving again and Shay Rafter would curl over London’s third point of the afternoon.
But Galway were red-hot in front of the posts and they had a goal to show for their efforts when Sweeney found the London net from close range.
They continued to assert their dominance and finished off their first-half scoring thanks to Paul Conroy, who landed a monstrous score from distance to give the Tribesmen a lead of 15 at the interval.
Things deteriorated further for the hosts after the restart as Galway continued to blitz the London goals.
Finnerty and Cein D'arcy opened the Galway account for the second-half before Conroy palmed their second goal after a slick hand-passing move on 48th minutes.
The floodgates opened from there, substitute Tomo Culhane slipping home two goals within 40 seconds of one another not long after coming on.
Galway were now forsaking points completely but D’arcy would bag number five, rifling a shot into the top corner and the scoreboard was looking very ugly from a London perspective.
London had probably given Galway too much respect as the Tribesmen dictated proceedings at McGovern Park.
Clarke and Rafter had gotten London’s first two scores of the second-half and when Conroy hit two quickfire points, Galway were 5-20 to 0-05 up, Finnerty would clip over Galway’s final point of the game.
Before Gallagher, Ruairi Rafferty and Ciaran Driver kicked three unanswered points that served only as miniscule consolation as Galway blew London away.
Worryingly for Padraic Joyce, however, Culhane departed with an injury afterwards, while Johnny Heaney, the scorer of four first-half points, also left the field to potentially add to the Westerners' already alarming injury-list.
London: Michael Lynch; Daire Rooney, Matt Moynihan, Fiontan Eastwood; Oran Kerr, Eoin Walsh (Captain), Tighe Barry; Liam Gallagher (0-03), Stephen Dornan; DJ O’Flaherty, Daniel Clarke (0-02), Ciaran Driver (0-01; Joshua Obahor, Shay Rafter (0-02), Nathan McElwaine
Subs: Michael Miller for Nathan McElwaine (17’), Patrick Dolan for Fiontan Eastwood (H/T), Gareth McDowell for Tighe Barry (47’), Ruari Rafferty for Stephen Dornan (51’), Michael Carroll for Oran Kerr (55’),
Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Seán Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh (0-01), John Daly (0-01), Liam Silke (0-01); Paul Conroy (1-03), Seán Kelly (Captain); Johnny Heaney (0-04), Cathal Sweeney (1-01), Cein D’arcy (1-02); Robert Finnerty (0-04, 0-01m), Cillian Ó Curraoin (0-04, 0-03f), Liam Ó Conghaile
Subs: Daniel O’Flaherty for Cathal Sweeney (H/T), Tomó Culhane (2-00) for Cillian Ó Curraoin (45’), Kieran Molloy for Johnny Heaney (46’), Eoghan Kelly for Seán Kelly (52’)
Referee: Liam Devenney (Mayo)
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