Master class from Joyce lifts Galway

Date Published: 19-Jun-2008

THE roar of relief which greeted substitute Cormac Bane’s 55th minute goal at Pearse Stadium on Sunday was a firm testament to the spirit and determination which rank outsiders Leitrim brought to a Connacht senior football semi-final which was widely expected to be a far more one-sided affair.

Until then, the result of the game really was in doubt, as Galway struggled to deal with the work-rate and honest toil of a side who made a complete mockery of the odds of 9/1 on offer for a shock
Leitrim victory.

All last week, a lot of us thought that Liam Sammon and his players were just being polite by ‘talking up’ Leitrim’s chances ahead of their trip to Salthill. How wrong we were, because recent close battles
with the men in green and yellow ensured that Padraic Joyce and company were far
from complacent ahead of this showdown.

With their supporters already talking about a Galway-Mayo final in Castlebar, as though Connacht’s ‘bigtwo’ had some sort of a divine right to win their respective semi-finals, it was a good job that the Tribesmen kept their focus and gave their opponents the respect they deserved. Had they not been tuned in properly, Galway could have come a cropper here.

Ultimately, Galway supporters left Pearse Stadium in the knowledge that this had been a genuine test – a right dose of reality – for the men in maroon. Out-fought in midfield until the introduction of
big Barry Cullinane, with defensive frailties exposed by a hard-working Leitrim attack, huge questions were posed of this Galway side.

Had they listened to the loose talk about an easy victory, Galway – who also escaped from Carrick-on-
Shannon with a four point win 12 months ago – might have suffered a shock defeat to rival the infamous set-backs of 1993 and ’94.

It may have been…