Breathnach proud of his players as Galway come up agonisingly short

By Eanna O’Reilly

DESPITE few outside the camp fancying Galway’s chances of turning over the defending champions Meath on Saturday evening, the Tribeswomen came agonisingly close to pulling off an upset in Tullamore.

After seeing his side lose out to a last-minute score from Meath’s star forward Emma Duggan, Galway joint manager Maghnus Breathnach was naturally disappointed, but expressed great pride in the performance of the Galway players.

‘‘Hugely proud of the girls today. A fantastic effort, when we were four or five points down to come right back into it, like in the Kerry game, it was brilliant. The girls never stopped battling right to the finish and unfortunately the clock went against us. But overall, hugely proud of the girls today, we were just a bit unlucky in the end.’’

‘‘We really got a brilliant performance from all of the players from start to finish. Meath got the goal early in the game and we had to fight back straight away. But our players never stopped fighting and kept believing in themselves. Look, we were five points down there in the second half, but the girls never stopped believing and managed to bring it back to a level game.

At that stage, I suppose you do start to think it’s going be your day. But unfortunately, it was a wonder score from Emma Duggan off the crossbar to seal it for them.’’

Breathnach felt that the competitiveness of his side in Saturday’s quarter final reflected the progress made by the panel since the beginning of the year, when Galway found themselves in a difficult position, following the unexpected departure of manager Gerry Fahy. Shortly before their first league game against Donegal in Ballybofey, Breathnach and Fiona Wynne had to suddenly take over the side and prepare them for the season ahead.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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