Goal-hungry Cork overpower Galway at Salthill

A scoring burst of 2-03 early in the opening six minutes of the second-half paved the way for Cork to maintain their perfect start to the Allianz Hurling League when they won a cracking game by 4-24 to 3-22 at Pearse Stadium in Salthill.

Galway rallied from eleven points adrift in the closing stages to cut the gap to four but that was as close as they got as the Rebels backed up their opening round win over All-Ireland champions Limerick with another impressive victory.

The sides were deadlocked at 1-13 apiece at the end of a good opening half where Galway surged five points clear after 18 minutes before the Rebels responded with six points in a row to take the lead for the first time in perfect conditions in front of a crowd of 8,872 at the Salthill venue.

The sides exchanged points twice in the opening six minutes before two points from Evan Niland and one from debutant Martin McManus pushed Galway in front. Conor Lehane then blasted to the net for Cork after being set up by the impressive Declan Dalton to tie the sides at 0-05 to 1-02 after nine minutes.

Dalton was the outstanding figure for Cork, finishing with 0-08, six of them from play, as well as setting up several other scores for a rampant Cork side missing several key players.

Galway, also without many regulars, hit back and Kevin Cooney batted to the net after taking a pass from McManus and they followed up with a string of points to lead by 1-09 to 1-04 at the end of the opening quarter.

Cork hit back. Shane Barrett, one of three late replacements for the visitors - which included Patrick Horgan crying off with a shoulder injury - rattled the crossbar with a goal effort but Dalton, Cormac Beausang and Shane Kingston led the way with scores before Barrett edged