Padraic Joyce urges Galway to improve ahead of Connacht final clash with Roscommon
PADRAIC Joyce accused his players of not listening in the wake of Saturday's sub-standard performance against Leitrim at Pairc Seán Mac Diarmada
The Galway manager was both “relieved” and “disappointed” after the Connacht champions were given an unexpected scare by the province’s minnows.
“Fair play to Leitrim, they put it up to us as we knew they would, but we didn’t handle it well. We complicated the game by making some unbelievable errors.
“We knew Leitrim were going to be tough, you can tell lads all week what’s going to come but if they don’t listen to you what can you do?”
In his seventh season as team boss, Joyce warned that the management would not hesitate to use the performance as a “stick to beat” the squad with in the build-up to the big clash with Roscommon.
“We’re into the Connacht final now, we’ve a game under our belts and we have definitely a good stick to beat them with for the next 13-14 days.
“We’ll get our heads together, we’ll definitely need to produce something way above the ordinary there today to compete in the Connacht final.”
Leitrim manager Stephen Poacher fired a salvo at pundits who thought the game would be over inside 10 minutes. “There was a lot of disrespect shown to us. We had them on the rack and should have won the game. We have a fantastic group of young men who want to play for Leitrim.”