Ford at a loss to explain first half

"Sure, that was the worst 35 minutes of football I've ever seen Galway play." They're not the words of an irate Galway supporter overheard in the gents at half-time. They are, in fact, the words of Galway manager Peter Ford. He was taking in the aftermath of the win over Roscommon when luckily for him the second 35 minutes were a lot more pleasing.

"We were terrible," added Ford. "Half-time just couldn't come quick enough. We addressed a few issues, but in fairness the lads were very annoyed with the way they were playing. They just looked each other in the eye and decided to start playing.

"I just don't know why we were so sloppy in the first half. We certainly weren't complacent. Once we got the goals early it was a different story. Of course I can't say they were pre-planned, but we were always prepared to wait 15 or 20 minutes to claw it back anyway.

"But still, we'll have to look at it again and see what went wrong in the first half. People have been saying we're good in the first half but can't play for the second. But we'll have to put a full 70 minutes together soon or we won't last much later."

Ford has until July 16th, when Galway meet the winner's of next Sunday's other semi-final between Mayo and Leitrim, to figure out exactly what went wrong in the first half. On reflection he'll probably realise Roscommon had a lot to do with it. Their performance in the opening 35 minutes would have been good enough to unsettle any team in the country.

For their manager, John Maughan, the defeat was at least softened by the knowledge that Roscommon had shaken Galway to their very foundations. "We didn't prepare to lose," admitted Maughan. "I always felt we could rattle Galway, and we showed that in the first half. It was just a horrendous start to the second half, and that was the difference in the end. But Galway have some exceptional talent and they can always hurt you. Still, Roscommon can be very proud of this. It's a young side, and hopefully their day will come."

Maughan also admitted the result would almost certainly have been different had they kept out those two Galway goals. "Sure, we talked about that first part of the second half. We felt we'd a great chance if we could keep them down, especially with the system and game plan we had going. They were vulnerable under the high ball, like what I'd seen against Sligo. But they were definitely fortunate for them. That was such a psychological blow to this young team. But there's a lot of youth in that team and I think Roscommon can still build on this. We're into the qualifiers now and I still can't imagine any team will fancy playing us."