Pádraic Joyce targeting top spot to give squad recovery time

Galway manager Pádraic Joyce is targeting top spot in Group 1 of the All-Ireland SFC in order to maximise his squad's recovery time ahead of the knockout stages.

The Tribesmen were pushed hard by Westmeath yesterday, eventually prevailing by four points, with a late Shane Walsh goal proving critical at TEG Cusack Park.

Something will have to give the next day as they face Armagh, who've also won their two games so far, but Joyce admits avoiding a preliminary quarter-final will be what they're working towards over the next couple of weeks.

"It's important for us to top the group if we can," he said on RTÉ's Sunday Sport. "With all the injuries we have it'll give us more time to relax. A break would be great."

On the game itself Joyce acknowledged that it wasn't their best performance of the season, but getting out of Mullingar with the points was the target.

"It was tight for a long time but we were never more than two points behind. Credit to our lads, stuck at it. It's a character-building game for us.

"We're not going to win every game as comfortable as we like. We'll take the win. All we wanted this morning was to get the two points.

"Fair play to the lads, they battled away and worked hard at it. We got the break in the end and Shane finished the goal really well."

Joyce is hopeful of seeing Damien Comer, Sean Kelly and Robert Finnerty sooner rather than later, but he couldn't say for certain if they would be available for selection against Armagh.

For Westmeath manager Dessie Dolan, it was a mixture of pride and frustration at putting themselves in the position to win the game, but ultimately came up short.

They were in possession when they coughed it up cheaply for the decisive score in the game, Shane Walsh at his clinical