Galway have Mayo in their sights, says Gary Sice

Gary Sice says all of Galway have ‘green and red in their eyes’ as they start the plot to dethrone the four-in-a-row Connacht champions Mayo.

After wins over Leitrim and New York, Galway welcome last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists to Pearse Stadium in four weeks’ time and the Corofin man says Galway are hungry to claim a first Connacht final since 2008.

Anyone looking for clues as to the capabilities of this Galway team won’t have left Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada too well educated on Sunday, but Sice says that 1-13 to 0-8 win was as good as it was going to be.

“It’s job done alright. Carrick is always tough. They were organised and were ready for the fight. We just went about our business and got out with our life.

“No it wasn’t 100%, and it never was going to be. Not many teams do a job on Leitrim down here so any time you win by eight or nine points is good.

“I’d have taken that this morning if you’d have offered it to me,” said Sice, who won a first club All-Ireland with Corofin earlier this year.

The hard working 30-year-old was absent from the squad last year as Galway lost out to Mayo in the MacHale Park decider after a falling out with then manager Alan Mulholland.

But he was immediately reintroduced to the panel when Kevin Walsh took over ahead of this campaign and Sice is now focused on locking horns with their recently successful neighbours.

“Focus is already turned to Mayo,” he said. “That job is done out there and now we have green and red in our eyes. We’re looking forward to a good battle with them.

“It’s good to wins championship games and we have two wins in the bag now. We saw them as tricky assignments and they could have gone a lot worse than they did for us, so we are just glad to have the wins.

“A few lads have more championship games under their belts and we can focus the mind now. Once the league is over the sooner the games come so hopefully those games will stand to us.

“Yeah we have a few things to sort (out with Mayo) there. It’s been a while since we turned them over, so that’ll be a good day and I’m looking forward to it,” he said.