Galway claim Connacht U21 title

Cadbury Connacht GAA Football U21 Championship Final: Galway 1-17 Roscommon 2-11 (AET)

Galway claimed the Connacht U21 title for the first time since 2011 with an impressive extra-time win over defending champions Roscommon at Dr. Hyde Park on Saturday night.

Galway were in real trouble with five minutes to go in normal time, when they trailed by three points. However, the Tribesmen battled their way back to draw level at the end of normal time and were the better team in extra-time as they edged to a deserved three-point win.

The game started spectacularly, with both sides notching goals in the first three minutes. Galway raised the first green flag inside a minute when Cathal Mulryan took advantage of a mistake by Roscommon 'keeper Tadhg Lowe. However, the Rossies hit back within two minutes when Donie Smith cracked a shot to the back of the Galway net after an excellent pass from Conor Daly.

Roscommon grabbed a second on 19 minutes, with Smith turning provider on this occasion for Finbar Cregg to finish. A Smith free then made it 2-4 to 1-3 in favour of the Rossies. Ian Burke, who was named man of the match after the game, sent over a couple of frees before the break to leave Galway 1-7 to 2-5 in arrears at half-time.

The Tribesmen were dealt a major blow on 41 minutes when defender Eoin Walsh was shown a straight red card. However, with Roscommon three points to the good and seemingly on the way to defending their title, they had the influential Smith sent off for a second yellow card after with seven minutes left.

With just a minute left Shane Walsh knocked over two frees in succession for Galway and then the superb Burke hit the equaliser in added time to force the game to extra-time.

Burke added two more to his tally in the first half of extra-time, as Galway led by 1-14 to 2-9 at the break, before he notched a seventh in the second ten-minute period and Galway sealed a three-point win.