Second bite of cherry suits skipper Moore

Galway skipper Fergal Moore has backed the Tribesmen to learn many lessons from yesterday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final.

The mood in the Galway camp was hugely positive after Joe Canning’s free in the third minute of stoppage time salvaged a replay.

Just like in the Leinster final against Kilkenny, Galway got off to a dream start and led by 1-2 to 0-1 after 11 minutes.

Moore acknowledged: “We started well and got the goal early on but we’re playing the All-Ireland champions on the biggest day of the year and they came back, showed their experience and ground their way back into the game.

“We were a couple of points up at half time but we knew they were going to come back at us and that’s what they did in the second half.

“They’re not champions for the past few years for no reason. They kept tagging over the scores and didn’t panic.

“We kept tipping away but probably needed a little bit more composure on the ball at times. We’re a young team though, and we’re learning every day that we go out. We’re extremely happy to get another bite at the cherry.”

Galway hit eight second-half wides — including Canning’s 69th-minute free that could have proved so costly.

But Moore always believed that another chance would present itself.

The Turloughmore defender said: “There were a couple of minutes left and all the players had spoken beforehand of how we were going to go to the finish.

“We knew another chance would come and it came. All the kudos to Joe, the ultimate professional. A free out on the sideline and he put it straight over and we have another bite at the cherry.”

Moore added: “Full credit to everybody. The only score that matters is the final score and we fought very hard for every ball from start to finish and that’s very pleasing.

“There are a few things we need to work on, but we’ve a couple of weeks now to learn from the lessons of today. We’ll work hard in training for the next couple of weeks and see where that takes us.”