'The lads deserve that' - Padraic Joyce hails Galway resolve after ending Mayo's Connacht reign

Padraic Joyce said his players had reaped the reward for "two or three years of hard work" after Galway recorded a first Connacht SFC victory over Mayo since 2018 and first of his tenure as manager.

"The lads deserve that," he told RTÉ Sport afterwards. "They have put a lot of work into Galway football the last two or three years and have had a lot of disappointments.

"Any day you can beat Mayo in Castlebar is a significant win.

"Today is a good day but we'll dust ourselves down now and get ready for Leitrim [in the semi-final] in two weeks’ time."

Galway survived a late rally from the hosts to win by a point – 1-14 to 0-16 - having been six up with two minutes remaining.

"You have to credit the lads for the character they showed," said Joyce.

"Obviously we didn’t play a full 70 minutes, as we would have liked, but that’s the way big games go. You’ll get your periods and they get their periods, where you try to limit the damage.

"We got a great start, went 1-03 up when Johnny [Heaney] snuck in behind Aidan O’Shea and stuck it in the back of the net.

Johnny Heaney with the goal for Galway against Mayo Highlights on #sundaygame at 9.30pm #RTEGAA ⌨️ https://t.co/BATVYoshOd