By Cian O'Connell

Encouraged by a spirited success over Cork, Galway manager Shane O'Neill is now looking forward to another Pearse Stadium assignment against Tipperary next Sunday.

A place in the knockout stages is the prize for whoever prevails at Salthill in the re-arranged fixture.

“We have a tasty match against Tipp’ now, the postponed game," O'Neill says.

“And particularly two home games, hopefully they will go well for us.

“What we have been trying to create over the last couple of months is a competitive squad.

“There were five subs (against Cork) and they all did extremely well. So we are very happy with that.”

O'Neill confirmed that a calf injury is set to rule Joe Canning out of the Tipp game, but is hopeful captain Padraig Mannion will be available.

"He had a rib injury there last week which was slow to heal," O'Neill remarked about Mannion, who was forced off during the Cork triumph.

“But he was feeling really good so he kinda just felt it there in the last 15 minutes.

“Joe’s injury didn’t clear up as quickly as we thought last week. So we just didn’t want to risk him.”

Having lost narrowly to Waterford, O'Neill admitted it was satisfying to overcome Cork on home turf.

“Oh it is," O'Neill admits. "we were on the receiving end of a one point last week. Again, we had 18 misses between wides and dropped short last week, which was something we were trying to address.

“Again, that was back to our use of the ball. So I think coming out of the winning side of a tough league game was great yeah.

“You are looking at how well the boys are digging in in all games. Which they are doing. That coupled with the quality of the hurling in the second half showed.”