Galway 1- 22 Dublin 1-15

GALWAY AVOIDED a hat-trick of defeats at Parnell Park as they captured the Walsh Cup for the first time yesterday.

The Tribesmen had lost on their two previous league visits to the capital, but with Joe Gantley starring at full forward, Galway were never really troubled.

Gantley fired in the opening goal off his left side with 14 minutes gone in the game but Alan McCrabbe’s registering nine first-half points for Dublin meant that the home side were still well in contention at the break, Galway leading 1-9 to 0-10.

But with Ger Farragher leading the way for Galway after the break, they pulled further ahead with back-to-back scores from David Burke and Niall Hayes increasing their lead to seven points on 47 minutes.

Gantley’s dominance ensured a comfortable win for Galway with Dublin having to wait until the 70th minute for a consolation goal from Shane Durkin.

GALWAY: C Callanan; D Joyce, S Kavanagh, P Holland; D Barry, T Óg Regan, K Hynes; G Farragher (0-9, five frees, one sideline), N Cahalan (0-1); A Callanan (0-3), C Donnellan, D Burke (0-2); A Harte (0-2), J Gantley (1-3), N Hayes (0-1). Subs: E Ryan for Donnellan (25 mins), K Kilkenny for Farragher (67 mins), I Tannian (0-1) for A Callanan (68 mins), T Mannion for Barry (70 mins).

DUBLIN: G Maguire; S O’Sullivan, N Corcoran, R Trainor; S Hiney, R Fallon, M O’Brien; J McCaffrey, S Lambert (0-2); D Curtin, S Ryan (0-1), J Kelly; P Carton, K Flynn (0-1), A McCrabbe (0-11, six frees, one sideline). Subs: M Carton for O’Sullivan (half-time), S Durkin (1-0) for Curtin (43 mins), R Walsh for Carton (63 mins).

Referee: J Owens (Wexford).