Mulholland content with performance

Galway manager Alan Mulholland will face some selection headaches ahead of his side’s Connacht semi-final clash with Sligo.

Mulholland was forced to introduce some new faces to the side which hammered London 3-17 to 0-7 but he believes the manner in which they acquitted themselves will ask questions of some established names in the panel.

“We had some injuries coming into the game and that forced us to make some changes, so there were probably lads in there we wouldn’t have considered at the very start,” he said. “We were happy with the way some of the younger guys acquitted themselves. Shane (Walsh) finished with a goal and a couple of points and he will be happy with that, and some of the younger guys will stake their claim now, so the likes of Sean Armstrong, Paul Conroy and so on are going to have work that bit harder to get back into the team. It will make us all the stronger when guys are available to come into the team against Sligo. This is going to strengthen the panel.”

Galway shot from the traps yesterday and were 1-3 to 0-0 ahead after only six minutes.

Giving an insight into their preparation Mulholland said: “We got a goal very early, that settled us and probably knocked London back,” said Mulholland. “We targeted the first 15 minutes and knew that they were going to try to welcome us so we knew we were going to have to set a marker down and set the tone for the game in the first 10 or 15 minutes. I couldn’t fault the attitude for that period. We opened the gap on London that they weren’t able to bridge and we just kept building on that. It was a good performance, we were delighted with it, but there is a lot we need to work on if we are going to progress. Our goal is to get to a Connacht final, and for that we need to go to our next game and beat Sligo, and we know we have to work on a lot after that game.”

However the manager lamented the easy nature of the 3-17 to 0-7 victory. “It wasn’t (a championship contest in terms of intensity), no. I think the stuffing was knocked out of London after the first 10 or 15 minutes. We knew they’d target the early part of the game to try and lay down a marker and we took that away from them with early scores.

“As long as we keep the lid on this now and make sure that no one gets carried away... the intensity wasn’t quite there so we are going to have to have our heads screwed on for the visit to Markievicz Park.”