Minor manager delighted with major improvement

Date Published: 03-Aug-2011

GALWAY minor manager Tommie Joyce has paid tribute to the way his charges have responded to the disappointing Connacht final defeat to Roscommon, insisting the Tribesmen’s All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Cavan last weekend was no more than they deserved.

Joyce was in buoyant mood after his outfit overturned an early four-point deficit to secure a 1-9 to 0-9 win over the Ulster champions at Pearse Park, Longford on Saturday to set up a semi-final date with Dublin on August 28. The Killererin man believed a result like this could just be the making of his team.

“It has turned things around,” enthused Joyce. “We were under pressure [after the Roscommon defeat] but, in fairness, the lads really knuckled down the Monday night after the Connacht final. We said we had two weeks until the quarter-final and we would give it as good a go as we could and if that was not good enough, fine. So, they have trained really hard the last two weeks and we got our deserved dues today. We got our win.”

That said, Joyce recognised Galway had done it the hard way, given that they were 0-5 to 0-1 down after just 20 minutes. He pointed out that some residue from their previous defeat may have lingered, while nerves might also have been a factor. However, Sean Moran’s goal on 24 minutes – which, effectively, came against the run of play – proved to be the perfect tonic.

See full interview and match report in Tribune Sport.