Galway's Paul Conroy insists that Sunday’s victory over Mayo will count for little unless they progress through the Championship.
The win was particularly sweet for Galway after being beaten in each of the last three years by their greatest rivals, including the last two Connacht finals.
Galway’s two previous wins over Mayo in Castlebar led to Connacht titles in 2016 and ‘18 though their victory at Pearse Stadium in between prefaced a provincial final defeat to Roscommon and Conroy is keen to put this latest result into context.
He said: “It has been tough, yeah, in the last two years. Two years ago we lost by a point down in an empty Pearse Stadium and last year, in fairness, they were better than us in Croke Park but it is good to get back on the horse.
“The management have put some amount of work into us so it was good to do it for them and, look, it doesn’t mean anything.
“It is the first round of the Championship, we need to learn from it and improve and if we don’t keep going this win is no good for us so we will enjoy this and we will park it for two weeks’ time.”
Galway, who play Leitrim in the provincial semi-final on Sunday week, led by six points at one stage but had to withstand a Mayo rally as the home side hit the last five points without reply.
“It was too close for comfort but thankfully we got the one point win in the end and it was great.
“In the first half we didn’t perform to the level we would have tried to or we would have liked to have got to. The black card (Finnian Ó Laoí) probably didn’t help.
“We were playing with the wind in the first half and you probably didn’t see it from the sideline but there was a wind out there and we were level at half-time.
“In fairness, in the second half we showed good grit and the subs that came on made the difference and Shane (Walsh) kicked some really good 45s and frees into the wind in the second half and they were big scores.”
Mayo had a late chance to force extra time though Aiden Orme’s effort from a tight angle was wide.
Conroy added: “Mayo came back like we knew they would and we were hanging on at the end and the last kick, I wasn’t sure if it was going over or not.
“If it’s going over you will hear it before it goes over so, yeah, delighted to get over it. We just need to knuckle down now and get the head right for two weeks’ time again.”
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