GALWAY ALIVE AND KICKING

Full throttle in attack for the Tribe as they gun Down home side in Newry shoot-out

- BY KARL O’KANE

GALWAY booked their place in next weekend's All-Ireland quarter-finals with their full forward line hitting 1-18 to defeat Down in a shootout at Pairc Esler.

Pádraic Joyce's side never trailed after the 10th minute, but having built up a 10 point half-time lead they were left to sweat before Tomo Culhane’s 67th minute goal sealed the deal.

That meant the Tribe got 1-3 off their bench, with Peter Cooke scoring once and winning three kickouts, Daniel O'Flaherty scoring two points and Culhane getting the goal.

Down's second half fightback was led by midfielder Daniel Guinness, who slotted over two two-pointers, and Odhran Murdock, who turned John Maher over and got on the end of the move to hit a goal.

Caolan Mooney shot two points off the bench as well, although Ryan Magill had stolen inside for a possible goal, while former AFL player Mooney also had a massive turnover and set Magill up for a goal in a huge 20 minute cameo.

Down will rue a series of misses, with Eugene Branagan having three of them, two of which he'd normally get, and Pat Havern and Danny Magill missing two point efforts in the second half.

Galway had huge performances from Walsh, who top scored with 1-7, Robert Finnerty with 0-6 and Matthew Thompson, who shot 0-5 in a man of the match display.

The visitors led by 1-16 to 1-6 at half-time with Walsh hitting 1-5.