Galway v Sligo - Connact SFC semi final 27th June

[Cosmo Kramer]

I'm sorry, but Meehan should get 8 weeks off for that dive.

He has brought the lowest form of gamesmanship into the sport and has been doing it repeatedly for the last 6 or 7 years. The man is a decent player but is a disgrace to the sport. He should be hanging his head in shame.

The replays are making you look very stupid aren't they?

Give me one instance of when he has ever dived in his career? Shut up you idiot.

On a side note, David Kelly is a great player but refs seem to give him frees whenever he is touched. Just because he is small doesn't entitle him to a free for every tackle made on him

Oh great. You've been let out for the weekend again...

[ross4life]

A word for Padraig Joyce who I thought was magnificent in the 2nd half today. Even at 33 he looked a class above everyone else on the field. Will be a sad day when the great man finally packs it in.

Pádraic Joyce was & still is one of the greatest players of this generation & it will be a sad day when he hangs up the boots

[shaund10]

I'm sorry, but Meehan should get 8 weeks off for that dive.

He has brought the lowest form of gamesmanship into the sport and has been doing it repeatedly for the last 6 or 7 years. The man is a decent player but is a disgrace to the sport. He should be hanging his head in shame.

The replays are making you look very stupid aren't they?

Give me one instance of when he has ever dived in his career? Shut up you idiot.

On a side note, David Kelly is a great player but refs seem to give him frees whenever he is touched. Just because he is small doesn't entitle him to a free for every tackle made on him

Oh great. You've been let out for the weekend again...

What does that mean? Again?

Just because the replays are making you look like a complete idiot and you cant give an example to back up your statement. Meehan is brilliant and a great role model for youngsters.

What should get a ban is the kick Meehan took to his injured knee the first ball he went for.

[galway15]

what a bad game of football. both teams very defensive and as a result made loads of mistakes.galway very lucky to get anything out of that. sligo wil find it hard to recover as should have won the game by about 7 points. PJ an absolute legend and kelly very good for sligo. sendng of changed thegame in galways favour as sligo lost all their shape and invited galway on to them. replay tough to call but i think galway have the edge now. heres hoping for a bettter game at least

[RedandGreenSniper]

It was, yet again, a pleasure to watch Padraig Joyce in action. I hope we see plenty more of him.

Free at the end was soft but I wouldn't be giving out to Meehan either.

Keelan Cawley will have nightmares about his miss at the end.

Some balls by Bradshaw to put his name forward for that equaliser.

[ross matt]

A word for Padraig Joyce who I thought was magnificent in the 2nd half today. Even at 33 he looked a class above everyone else on the field. Will be a sad day when the great man finally packs it in.

I said to a couple of people today that I might stop going to games when he retires. Might as well pull the team out altogether when that sad day comes. He is a perfect example that you can forget about fast strong tough athletes, having a brain is so much more important

Padraig is a very tough physically strong man also Shaund. That's why he wins so much ball and retains it. Still has a burst of pace when he gets the room to use it like one of his points today when he ran through the Sligo defence. Agree with you about his brain. Phenomenal. Does the simple things so well.

[Shrewdness]

With the brains, he also has a natural football ability which is what makes him such a special player.

[highorlow]

What were the Sligo Management thinking of in the 2nd half?

[GaillimhIarthair]

Thanks god for P Joyce, the man is a genius and hauled us out of the mire yet again yesterday.  A woeful first half performance from Galway was unbelievably replicated by Sligo after half time.  I just couldn't understand Sligo's tactics (or lack of them) after HT, especially with the extra man for the majority of it.  The just played so deep and invited Galway on to them time after time.  What was O'Hara supposed to be doing?  He was more of a hindrance than a help in his role the longer the game went on and his last challenge on Meehan was very naive for a man of his experience. 
Great goal from Kelly in the first half, that lad would grace any county team in the country, fantastic player.  Hard to know what to expect from either side for the replay.  Will the game bring Galway on after their 8 week break?  How fit is Meehan?  Will Sligo feel they have blown it?  Whatever the answers, hopefully we have a better game next day out becuse both side only played for about 1 half each yesterday.

[Lar Naparka]

I honestly think Sligo were very lucky to escape with a draw yesterday. They committed an almost fatal error and that is that they had assumed that the game was over as a contest before the ref blew the final whistle.
To their great credit, Galway don't entertain thoughts of surrender at any stage of any championship match. I can't recall a single game where they did so and I have been watching them since the mid-sixties. In this respect they remind me of Meath, past masters in the art of coming back from the dead. Sligo should really have kept the scare they got in the '07 final in mind and kept the hoof down right to the very end.
Mayo have fallen foul of the complacency trap far too many times and so have Roscommon so I suppose Sligo can be excused somewhat for thinking ahead to the Connacht final before the semi had ended.
I had a score on Sligo to do the business yesterday; I won't be laying a bet of any sort next day as I think the result will be too close to call right up to the end. I had imagined that the long layoff would prove too much for Galway to handle and it almost did but the game yesterday will have brought them on a great deal and Sligo will have to best at their best from beginning to end if they are to prevail. With home advantage they just might shade it but I'm keeping my money in my pocket for this one.
For me, Pee Joyce was Galway's saviour yesterday as he has been so often in the past. That fella is an automatic shoo in on my list of all-time greats; if Sligo can't manage to shackle him from start to finish next day, they will be left with regrets for what might have been.

[drici]

Replay live on TV3.

[ross4life]

Replay live on TV3.

Good Stuff 630 yeah?

[myball22]

You have to think that Sligo will win the next day. I mean Galway were absolutely dreadful yesterday. There were very few redeeming features that you could take from the game apart from the fact that Padraic Joyce is still the best of what we have to offer at 33, a return to from of sorts for Finian Hanley and a reasonable championship debut for Concannon with 1-1 and some game time for Michael Meehan.

Otherwise we were a disaster, I still cannot fathom how Alan Burke lasted seventy minutes on David Kelly who roasted him all day and can't understand how Bergin, Sice, O'Donnell lasted seventy minutes on the pitch.

Even in the second half we tried to play this possession game but no penetration at all, we played like clueless chicken at times and only for P Joyce and to a much lesser extent Meehan when he came on, we would have been hammered.

Why were we kicking the ball over the sideline fom our kick-outs when we won a reasonable amount at midfield? Why was our build-up play so slow and ponderous? I really cannot see anything other than an easy Sligo win the next day. Galway will put up a fight to come close with about 10-15 minutes to go and then fall away similiar to playing Donegal the next day.

I know there is a lot of talk of lazy media in England today and how they hype up the England team. The same happens with the Galway team which is living in the past glories of '98 and '01. When will it be seen that this team is a poor relation of those teams and that we are really poor indeed?

[magpie seanie]

I am annoyed we didn't finish things yesterday but I certainly don't think we've blown our chance. Even though some might think this cocky we are equals of Galway currently. The last 3 championship results which are the most relevant evidence are dead level and that's with Galway scoring 1-1 in injury time in the last two of them.

Analysis of the game can only be limited as its impossible to play football in that place. Also, the sending off fcuked things up with the usual "balancing act" by the ref. Armstrongdeserved his two yellows but from a Sligo point of view it was the worst thing that could have happened. I suppose the extra few quid for Connacht council won't go astray with more white elephants to build.

On the Michael Meehan dive can anyone honestly say it would have been given up the other end? Would have been a free out for overcarrying.

[shaund10]

Analysis of the game can only be limited as its impossible to play football in that place. Also, the sending off fcuked things up with the usual "balancing act" by the ref. Armstrongdeserved his two yellows but from a Sligo point of view it was the worst thing that could have happened. I suppose the extra few quid for Connacht council won't go astray with more white elephants to build.

On the Michael Meehan dive can anyone honestly say it would have been given up the other end? Would have been a free out for overcarrying.

What did Armstrong do to deserve his first yellow? A harmless push after being subjected to what can only be described by a sensitive 4 letter word beginning with R off the ball for the duration of the first half. The referee was slightly poor, as he gave Sligo, especially Davey and Kelly a mountain of soft frees. The refs seem to have decided that these lads are so small that they shouldnt be subjected to tackling, they should just be given a free upon contact. "Balancing act"!! Who are you deluding?

Ands get over the free at the end. Replays have proved it was a free. Im sure TV3 might send you out a copy if you want to watch it again and again. But the result will be the same, an obvious free.

To MyBall, my god things aren't that bad. Fair enough we were dreadfull and lucky, but the fact that we can play that badly and come out with a draw has to be a positive. Theres no need for that much doom and gloom, we have undoubted potential in the panel. Not many teams have a stronger base set of forwards than the 2 Joyce's, Meehan and Armstrong. Fair enough, Nicky and Sean need to dshow it but the potential is certainly there. We also have excellent young players in Bradshaw and Conroy. I was really disappointed with both yesterday but I can forgive both one bad day out. Our Midfield has performed well in its last 3 championship outings. We may be short a few players but we have potential, and are still a top 6/7 side. You sound spoilt by success, All Ireland winning groups dont come along every few years bar in Kerry