Players will be ready to go again in semis replay – Donoghue

IT wasn’t so much a case of what might have been, but more so a case of what is yet to come for Micheál Donoghue reflecting on the incredible spectacle he had just witnessed play out before him in Croke Park last Saturday evening. Sure, there were chances missed, balls dropped and wrong decisions taken, but what’s in the past is in the past. Now Galway must park it, learn from it and improve ahead of this Sunday’s replay at Semple Stadium. “Ah, sure look, it was an epic encounter,” he began. “We started well. Obviously, we knew coming up that Clare were going to be a massive challenge and we got a good start and they came back well into the game and I think once they came back close to parity, it just took a life of its own. “Both teams probably had chances in normal time and similar in extra-time, but, look, I'm really proud of our lads, they worked really hard. “Any time they got a setback they came back and got the scores when we needed them and, you know, we picked up a few knocks as well and the lads who came off the bench made a massive contribution. We just draw on our experience now and recover and go again next week.” For the second game in succession, Galway started brilliantly before allowing their border rivals claw their way back in to the game. A total of 12 first half wides will no doubt be one of the main frustrations Donoghue will take away from the game for had the Tribesmen converted even half of those opportunities, not to mention goal chances for Cathal Mannion and Johnny Glynn, Galway could well have been out of sight. “I think our efficiency normally is very good. Today a bit down. But, look, the encouraging thing for us is that we were still taking the shots. We'll take it as a learning from the game and we'll just move on now again,” the Galway manager continued.