In a tightly contested Leinster Championship encounter, Galway and Kilkenny battled to a draw, with the final score reading Galway 2-23 to Kilkenny’s 29 points.
Galway’s captain Conor Whelan proved to be the hero as his crucial point in the fifth minute of added time rescued a draw for Henry Shefflin’s side.
Cathal Mannion’s goal in the first half kept the Cats within touching distance, allowing Kilkenny to head into halftime with a four-point lead. However, the second half presented challenges for Kilkenny as Galway capitalized on the wind advantage, mounting pressure on the opposition.
Despite holding a two-point lead heading into injury time, Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng found positives in his team’s performance, stating, “Few points up with a couple of minutes to go, you’re probably disappointed to lose the lead, but at the same time I’m very happy with how we performed overall.”
“I thought, particularly against the wind, very strong wind, we used the ball very well and got some great scores. But yeah, look, we were disappointed at the end, but we’ll take a lot of positives from it.”
Looking ahead, Kilkenny, who are yet to secure a win, will face Carlow in their next fixture, while Galway, fresh from their draw, will take on Wexford, who suffered a loss to Antrim. Both matches are scheduled to take place in two weeks’ time.