MICHÉAL DONOGHUE dedicated Galway’s win over Clare to Michael Coleman in an emotional night at Pearse Stadium.
The flags flew at half mast for the 1988 All-Ireland winner and three-time All-Star, who passed away tragically on Friday night repairing storm damage at his home.
And Donoghue hopes his former team-mate would have been proud of the performance as 2-3 from Anthony Burns tore down the Banner last night.
He said: “I thought coming here we knew we had to start really well, very conscious that this was our last home game and to give a performance.
“And in particular, you know, the events of Michael passing over the last 24 hours, the profound effect that has had in the hurling fraternity is massive.
“And when he played, he always played with massive distinction and we wanted to make sure that we gave them a performance that they’d be proud of.
“I would have hurled with him when I was involved with Galway, he was an absolute gentleman.
“Of course we mentioned it, of course we mentioned it. He’s such an icon of Galway hurling and our sincere sympathies to Mary, Dara and Sinead.”
The Tribes devoured the reigning NHL and All-Ireland champions in a riproaring first half of hurling, which was enough to win the game.
And two goals in as many minutes from Burns stunned the Banner, who went from two ahead to 10 points down.
The visitors never recovered, and are under early relegation trouble after losing both games so far.
But Loughrea man Burns was lucky to stay on the pitch after an off the ball incident at the end of the first half with Clare’s Darragh Lohan – who had to go off injured as a result.
Skipper Conor Whelan gave Lohan nightmares as a makeshift Banner defence was turned inside out.
Lohan reverted to full-back when Conor Leen was injured in the warm-up, as Ian McNamara seriously struggled in his battle with Burns and the hosts made hay.
Galway lost five-time All-Star Daithí Burke after just 13 minutes with a hamstring injury, and Clare got off to a strong start.
The visitors stormed 0-8 to 0-5 ahead in the first quarter as Ryan Taylor, Aidan McCarthy, Cian Galvin and Patrick Crotty pointed.
Taylor’s second of the night was a beauty and steered Clare 0-9 to 0-7 in front before they went 1-10 to 0-9 behind in a flash.
Burns fired over his second before the Banner got their first warning when Cianan Fahy sent Whelan clean through on goal with Lohan in his wake, but Eamonn Foudy saved brilliantly with his leg.
Evan Niland scored the resulting ‘65 before Monaghan fed Burns, and the Loughrea man left McNamara red-faced to lash home.
Clare’s defence was in tatters again two minutes later when Whelan skipped past Lohan, and Burns’ trickery fooled McNamara all over again to make it 2-11 to 0-10.
Dan Loftus, Niland, Whelan, Darren Morrissey and Monaghan turned the screw and left Clare with a 10-point mountain to climb at the break.
To make things worse for Clare, Lohan was taken off just before the interval after the off the ball incident with Burns – and Banner calls for the goal hero to be sent off were ignored.
The second half was a damp squib, as Galway went about their business to ensure there was no comeback – but fired 10 wides.
Niland’s placed balls kept them ticking over as Padraic Mannion continued to conduct the orchestra at the back.
Clare were often forced to shoot from range to their downfall, as they failed to create a sniff of a goal chance to drag themselves back into the game.
Monaghan continued to run the show in the middle as McCarthy’s frees were the bulk of Clare’s threat, despite Tony Kelly’s first appearance of the year and stoppage time score.
But the Banner need points on the board to ease relegation fears after two defeats from two, as fellow strugglers Wexford come to Cusack Park on February 23.
Galway are not in action again until their trip to Wexford on March 1.
Daithí Burke will undergo a scan this week to assess the damage, but Donoghue hopes his 2017 All-Ireland winning skipper David Burke will make his first appearance of the season against the Model.
But he warned his squad that last night’s second half performance will not be good enough going forward as they slipped back a gear and started to miss the target badly.
He said: “It’s just a hamstring injury (for Daithí Burke). Obviously now, the severity of it, we won’t know until we have the scan, so obviously he’ll be having that nearly next week.
“David Burke definitely is training really, really well. So he’ll definitely be available for the Wexford game. Cathal Mannion (achilles) is working really hard with the medical team, so he shouldn’t be too far.
“Maybe the Wexford game might come too soon for him, but he’s working really well.
“Obviously we were looking for a fast start. It was probably nip and tuck, we pulled ourselves back into it and then maybe we did more of what we wanted, opening it up up top and good quality ball and the lads did that and we got the rewards for it.
“But the first half was certainly better than the second half. The second half wasn’t to the standard we expected.
“Yes, we started okay but had four or five wides, but that probably just deflated the performance a bit from us. So, a lot to work on.”
GALWAY 2-21
CLARE 0-20
GALWAY: D Fahy; D Loftus 0-1, Daithí Burke, D Morrissey 0-1; P Mannion 0-1, G Lee, C Trayers; C Fahy, T Monaghan 0-2; J Fleming, T Killeen, B Concannon; E Niland 0-9, 7f, 1 65, C Whelan 0-2, A Burns 2-3.
Subs: F Burke for Daithí Burke 13mins; J Flynn 0-1f for Niland 46, K Cooney for Concannon 46, S Linnane 0-1 for Fleming 53, E Lawless for Trayers 66
CLARE: E Foudy; A Hogan, D Lohan, I McNamara; C Galvin 0-1, Ross Hayes, J O’Neill; C Malone, P Donnellan; R Taylor 0-2, S Rynne, P Crotty 0-2; A McCarthy 0-12, 9f, D Reidy 0-2, K Smyth.
Subs: R Hayes for Lohan 37mins; A Shanagher for Smyth 49, C O’Mara for Rynne 53, T Kelly 0-1 for Donnellan 55, D Conroy for Malone 61
REFEREE: M Kennedy (Tipperary)
