Costello points way as senior footballers defeat Tribesmen

Sun, 3rd February 2019

FL DIVISION 1 ROUND 2

DUBLIN 1-15 GALWAY 0-7

A strong second-half showing saw Dublin impressively defeat Galway in Saturday night’s NFL Division 1 clash at Croke Park.

The Dubs led by the minimum, 0-6 to 0-5, at the break before they hit the turbo on the restart to cruise to their 11-point victory in front of an attendance of 14,502.

Dublin manager Jim Gavin also used the occasion to ‘blood’ some new faces with Liam Flatman, who is eligible for U20FC this year, Seán Bugler, U20 captain last year, Darren Gavin, an All-Ireland U21FC winner in 2017, and Ryan Basquel all making their NFL debuts, Lucan Sarsfields man Gavin as a second-half substitute. All acquitted themselves well.

It was Cormac Costello who led the way up front for Dublin, kicking five points from play as well as converting one mark in a highly dynamic showing.

The Whitehall Colmcille man was particularly active during Dublin’s scoring surge at the start of the second-half when they outscoring the Tribesmen 1-6 to 0-1 in the 20 minutes after the half-time interval.

It was Dean Rock who grabbed the only goal of the game in the 57th minute when he reacted very smartly to a breaking ball into the danger area to beat Maghnus Breathnach from close range.

Dublin’s defensive work was solid throughout and limited Galway to just two points in the second-half, one a free.

The hard work out the field forcing Galway to kick long and early with Dublin’s defenders attacking the ball at pace with Jonny Cooper, Eric Lowndes and Michael Fitzsimons particularly to the fore.

Dublin travel south to face Kerry in Tralee next Saturday night in their third game of this campaign.

SCORERS – Dublin: D Rock 1-5 (0-2f), C Costello 0-6 (0-1 mark), P Mannion 0-2, S Bugler, N Scully (0-1 mark) 0-1 each. Galway: C McDaid, P Cooke 0-2 each, J Heaney, S Walsh (0-1f), B McHugh (0-1f) 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: E Comerford; E Lowndes, M Fitzsimons, L Flatman; E Murchan, J Cooper, J Small; J McCarthy, B Fenton; N Scully, C Costello, S Bugler; D Rock, P Mannion, R Basquel. Subs: B Howard for Basquel (49), P Flynn for Bugler (55), J McCaffrey for Small (61), D Gavin for McCarthy (61), C McHugh for Mannion (66).

GALWAY: M Breathnach; E Kerin,S Kelly, SA Ó Ceallaigh; G O’Donnell, G Bradshaw, J Heaney; K Duggan, T Flynn; C McDaid, J Duane, P Cooke; P Cunningham, C D’Arcy, S Walsh. Subs: B McHugh for McDaid (ht), G Armstrong for Cooke (63), D Wynne for Ó Ceallaigh (66).

REF: C Branagan (Down).