By John Harrington

In a Connacht SFC Quarter-Final of very fine margins, it was Galway’s greater impact from the bench that ultimately made the difference against Mayo yesterday.

Players like Sean Kelly, Ian burke, Peter Cooke, and Eamonn Brannigan all made telling contributions from the bench for the Tribesmen, whereas Cillian O’Connor was the only Mayo sub who really made his presence felt.

“They are the game changers”, said Galway’s Shane Walsh after the match when reflecting on the impact made by his team-mates off the bench.

“That’s what you are looking for in big games. You see Dublin rolling out their bench.

“That’s what we are trying to emulate, that we are trying to get the team to that standard and in fairness the panel is so strong at the moment and the vibe was so good there and still had players that weren’t involved there, the likes of Michael Daly, and Padraic Cunningham played junior.

“There is so much more in the squad and hopefully we can keep bringing it out.

“If the lads that are starting don’t push it out the subs won't be able to change the game when they came in.”

It was telling that three of Galway’s substitutes – Adrian Varley, Burke, and Kelly – combined brilliantly to set up Johnny Heaney for the match-winning goal in injury-time.

Kelly also scored a point less than a minute after his second-half introduction, and Tom Flynn also made a big impact when he was reintroduced to the fray in injury-time after being subbed off earlier in the game.

“Yeah, it was good to see Tom Flynn coming back in, got one or two vital balls, got a point,” reflected Galway manager Kevin Walsh after the match.

“We’re trying to instill that, it’s not a case that you’re disappointed when you don’t make a team or get taken off, it’s just do your very best for the time you’re there shake the other man’s hand.”

They got there in the end, but Galway made hard work of it at times and failed to really capitalise on their numerical advantage as much as you might have expected them to after Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor was red-card in the first-half.

It wasn’t always pretty, but Kevin Walsh was perfectly happy to win ugly.

“It was tough going,” he said. “I always say this to you, we’ll have to see it again on Tuesday night. It looked pedestrian at times, I suppose, with the way the teams were set up. At other times it looked explosive so it was one of those types of games.

“It was about minimising the mistakes and being able to recover from them when they’re made. The shooting boots wouldn’t have been on as you’d like but overall it was a tough game for both sides.”