Padraic Joyce: Galway robbed Sligo with late semi-final winner

Galway manager Padraic Joyce admitted his side had "robbed" Sligo with their dramatic smash-and-grab win from a last-minute Rob Finnerty goal at Markievicz Park in Saturday's Connacht semi-final.

Finnerty broke Yeats County hearts when he palmed home in injury time to give Galway their only lead of the game right at the death and, ultimately, a two-point win, 1-13 to 0-14.

"We’re just relieved to get out of that," Joyce told RTÉ Sport’s Cathal Mullaney after the game. "Very relieved to win the game, we didn’t perform anywhere near our levels.

"Sligo were very unfortunate not to see the game out, we’ve probably robbed them in the end, to be honest. It was the 73rd minute before we got ahead in the game. We know we were lucky to win the game."

Joyce suggested the Saturday afternoon throw-in time may have played a part in Galway’s subdued performance, but the All-Ireland winner warned his side that they have a fortnight to shape up before the provincial final, or they could be in for a long day.

"We can find some excuse somewhere, obviously a match at half-three in the afternoon on a Saturday is not ideal to try get motivated for but there’s always some excuse," Joyce offered.

"But that performance is not near good enough and if we perform like that in two weeks' time, we’ll have a job keeping the ball kicked out.

"The big positive is that, even though everything was going against it and we weren’t really clicking as a team, we kept at it and kept at it and eventually got the break at the end. We didn’t give up. The lads stuck at it, I have to give them full marks for that.

"That’s the only thing I can take out of it. There’s three or four lads who had brilliant performances but other than that, it was a disappointing enough day