Galway minor footballers turn attention to All-Ireland quarter-final
For Cossie Gilmore and the Galway minor footballers, the focus now shifts to regrouping ahead of the All-Ireland quarter-final against the Ulster champions - the Ulster championship is only at the quarter-final stage this weekend.
“We really wanted to win this Connacht championship, Galway haven’t won it for eight years. We wanted to break that up, we’re in an All-Ireland quarter-final, it’s four weeks away. We have time with them, we’ll pull it together again, the second half performance will give them confidence. From a management point of view, we would be looking at the mistakes we made in the first half and try to ensure that doesn’t happen again,” said Gilmore.
A slow start against Roscommon had Galway trailing 2-8 to 0-5 at the interval. However, an improved second-half display where two pointers from goalkeeper Evan Burke and Ryan Connolly gave the hosts energy and Galway managed to reduce the gap to one point coming down the stretch, but that was as close as they got.
“It’s a heart-breaking defeat, I’m glad the lads put on that performance in the second-half because look, we were really poor in the first-half. I wouldn’t have liked it to end like that for them, they are a really good bunch of lads, they were nervous in the first-half. That can happen, some people say home advantage in Tuam in a Connacht final can be a good thing, but it can also bring nerves on as well.
"They settled down, they really came at it in the second-half, some super scores, super play and they showed the type of footballers they can be."
A long-range free courtesy of goalkeeper Evan Burke deep into injury-time could have forced extra time but his effort just dropped short and Roscommon managed to clear their lines.
“It’s funny [Evan’s free] was to actually win the game, we would have taken a draw. The fact that he was willing to take that, that was super from a young lad. The fact that he came within six inches of it, senior players wouldn’t have attempted it, fair play to him for doing that.”