Galway’s John Maher celebrates after the victory over Dublin in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inphostepped out of the shadows of an unrelenting history and many other more contemporary setbacks to plant their flag onTwo of the three remaining unbeaten teams met in an enthralling match and by the end that was down to two and included Galway, not the All-Ireland champions.
Con O’Callaghan claimed two fine marks and converted them as well as providing the assist in a spectacular move, finished by Brian Fenton. Mannion, Cormac Costello and Ciarán Kilkenny also helped to build the score. Walsh, however, kept the whole show on the road with his flawless first-half marksmanship. Unerring from frees, he also persecuted John Small with two sumptuous finishes from play.
Goalkeeper Connor Gleeson played his part in that. Presumably scalded by Armagh cashing in a couple of his wayward restarts in the group match, he went long with the vast majority of his kick-outs and Galway retained an impressive two-thirds.“Right after half-time, that score Cillian got and that’s what we targeted the first five, 10 minutes after half-time, just solely because if Dublin got the first one or two scores, sure it was game over – they were six up.
He was well supported by the rest of the team, Paul Conroy overcoming some bad wides to finish strongly and Dylan McHugh’s typical excellence came to the fore, winning turnovers and kicking the 65th-minute equaliser after which Galway never again trailed.