By Pádraic Ó Ciardha

Galway manager Pádraic Joyce did his best to put a positive spin on his side’s one-point defeat to Dublin in Pearse Stadium last weekend but for the talk of “super performances” and “great entertainment”, there was no getting away from the fact that this was a setback for Galway.

Coming off of a strong provincial campaign, Joyce would have hoped to get the group stage off to a good start to carry that momentum through the difficult games to come, but it wasn’t to be on Saturday and now leaves very little margin for error in the next game against Derry.

There’s no shame in losing to this Dublin team who, for all the talk of decline, are still one of the best sides in the country and deserved their victory, but any game you lose with the last kick of the game is going to be sickener.

“It’s a tough one to take,” admitted Joyce. “Especially [since] we got ourselves into a position to win the game. I think we dealt with the high-pressure situations in Castlebar, but we didn’t really do that tonight.”

While John Daly and Matthew Tierney showed composure to link-up for the equalising score with just a minute remaining, that was the exception rather than the rule for Galway in the closing stages and was their only score in the final 10 minutes as they wasted possession at key stages.

“We tried a few passes into trouble, into crowded areas, which we don’t normally do. We’d have to look back at the tape and see who gave them or who we were looking for. There were a couple of errors as well on the ball. We probably gave Dublin 1-2 from mishandling the ball and that kind of stuff,” said Joyce.

“But look, I have to commend the lads for their heart and effort in the second-half there. They were four points down against the wind and they came out in the second-half and showed great heart, great commitment.”

Any one-point game is going to be decided by tight margins, and this one was no different with Joyce unhappy with a couple of calls that went against his side in the second-half, beginning with the incident when Seán Kelly was penalised after colliding with Dublin full-back, Theo Clancy.

“It’s a great set-move we have – across to Rob [Finnerty] and onto Seán and he got pulled for barging. It’s a ridiculous decision if you ask me. But again, look, I wasn’t as close to the play as David Gough was.

“Dylan McHugh [then] coming around the back there seemed to be pulled down around his neck [and no free given]. So, just didn’t get the breaks today and we have to suck it up and move on.”

Any talk of Dublin being finished was given short-shrift in the Galway dressing room, according to Joyce, and he commended Dessie Farrell’s gameplan which saw Dublin come out on top of the midfield battle, an area of strength for Galway normally.

“We probably got beaten on our own kickout in the first-half. We kept plodding along and didn’t really change it in-game at the time. We’ll take learnings from that,” said the manager, who was at least very pleased with how his side pressed Stephen Cluxton’s kickouts, even if their efforts weren’t massively rewarded.

Galway now have to travel to Celtic Park Sunday week with the knowledge that a defeat could put them out of the All-Ireland race at the beginning of June. The pressure is on, but the Galway manager is confident that his side will rise to the challenge Derry bring.

“Things aren’t going so well for them but nothing like a bit of adversity to put that together and get ready for a big home game,” said Joyce. “It’s going to be a belter again for us. We’ll be ready for it”.

Pictured: Galway’s Rob Finnerty sends Sean MacMahon of Dublin the wrong way as he looks for an opening. Photos: Joe O’Shaughnessy.