Connacht football emphasised its top-table credentials by qualifying for a third successive football final. In yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park, Galway put in a much improved performance to outplay and out-think a poor Derry team, short on inspiration and organisation.

Galway led from start to finish, exploited space well and showed marked progress in their marksmanship to win by a five-point margin which flattered the Ulster champions. All around the pitch, the winners were scoring small victories which added up to a convincing and emphatic success.

Of course, there have been eight teams from the west in All-Ireland finals since Galway won Connacht's last title 32 years ago. The bridging of that gap will be the ultimate test of the province's rehabilitation from the nadir of Mayo's 20-point defeat by Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final five years ago.

There were signs yesterday that the mood is changing. Manager John O'Mahony who has led three counties into the All-Ireland series and now two into finals, said that the team's mood had been very positive over the weekend and that there had been a "good feeling" about the match.

Reserve goalkeeper Pat Comer, a veteran of many campaigns, pointed out that the team was relaxed, had stayed in a quiet hotel with none of the attendant back-slapping that disrupted teams in the past.

In addition, he pointed out that the team was young and had none of the apprehensions that previous Galway teams at Croke Park had suffered before big matches. The mood among supporters was also different. As Comer indicated, there was a noticeable increase in the number of young people in the crowd of 38,569.

As a proportion of the attendance, Galway's support was well in the ascendant compared to Derry's, many of whom had reportedly made the curious decision to wait for the final.

Reservations about Galway's ability to impose their strengths and survive their weaknesses centred on indecision in the forwards and looseness in defence. Both units answered emphatically. As a further index of the team's wellbeing, centrefield also did well.

Kevin Walsh had a fine match from the moment he leapt up in his own square to field Anthony Tohill's first-minute free.

His calf-muscle injury had cleared up sufficiently to enable him give one of his best big-match performances in a while. Beside Walsh, Sean O Domhnaill played spiritedly on Tohill and embroidered his performance by kicking a fabulous point at the end of the first half.

Galway's defence answered the questions with a cohesive display that included a great afternoon's work on Joe Brolly by Tomas Mannion who eventually had the satisfaction of watching his eminent opponent being substituted in the 44th minute - much to the Dungiven man's dissatisfaction and the bafflement of most present who couldn't understand why a team should replace their most potent forward.

Sean de Paor, at wing-back for Galway, had a rousing second half. With Derry taking the brunt of Kieran McKeever's 51st-minute dismissal on the half-forward line, de Paor and captain Ray Silke shuffled the extra man's duties between them.

Nonetheless, the most potent sign of Galway's advancement was the form of the forwards where Fergal Gavin was named to fill the leftwing vacancy.

In the Connacht final replay, they had managed 20 wides and spoiled penetrative ball movement by dithering in sight of the posts.

Yesterday there was none of this. In the entire 70 minutes, Galway had only three wides, none of them from play. It was an impressive total even if half the 16 points came from frees, a commentary on Derry's failure to cope with the westerners' attack.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the travails of the McKeever brothers in the Derry corners. Between them they conceded five points from frees and were both booked by referee John Bannon within half an hour - Kieran McKeever for a terrible challenge on Michael Donnellan whose pace up and down the left wing was causing great problems.

In the 51st minute the Derry captain was sent off for a second bookable offence but thereafter the referee seemed to decide that the McKeevers had suffered enough. His brother's dismissal seemed to have immunised Emmett McKeever against a similar fate.

Accordingly, fouls on Derek Savage and Ja Fallon (blatantly tripped on his way through the defence) earned the left-corner back no further sanction.

On this occasion at least, crime didn't pay and the meticulous free-taking of Padraig Joyce kept the tariff for these infringements ticking over.

Galway's pace in attack was proving too hot for Derry. Donnellan and Savage zipped around showing for ball and attacking a jittery Derry defence. The former was particularly effective roaming the field collecting possession deep and taking it forward. His two long-range frees were also valuable contributions in the first half.

Six frees contributed to Galway's 10-point total at half-time.

They had survived a rocky start to the second quarter and pulled away for a six-point lead.

John O'Mahony afterwards complimented Ja Fallon on his leadership of the forwards. It was a fair comment, although the Tuam man had faded in the first half from promising beginnings when he won a rake of breaking ball.

But Fallon is a huge asset to the team in that he can survive periods of frustration without losing his concentration.

He began to probe the gaps in Derry's defence in the last quarter and took three points with stylish precision off elegant, left-footed kicks.

It had taken Galway nearly a quarter of an hour to get on the scoreboard in the second half but once Joyce's free cleared the blockage the points began to flow and Fallon's three points came as part of a surge that took the team from four points to the good to seven.

Capping the whole effort was the performance of goalkeeper Martin McNamara. Five months after his heroics had been central to Corofin's All-Ireland success, Mac again produced a couple of classic saves. The first came in the 39th minute after a through ball from Dermot Dougan put Brolly straight in on goal. McNamara was quick off his line and smothered the shot.

On the hour, Tohill opened up Galway's defence and had claims for a penalty but play continued and the ball ran loose for substitute Joe Cassidy whose shot from pointblank range was magnificently blocked by McNamara, the ball eventually rebounding off Seamus Downey for a wide.

In the dying minutes Derry launched a series of frantic attacks. One effort from Geoffrey McGonigle - whose hefty form appeared as Derry's last gambit with five minutes to go - required another smart save from McNamara. Finally, they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Eamonn Burns which the dependable Gary Coleman converted.

Fittingly it was left to Fallon to toy with the Derry cover in injurytime before unleashing a glorious, curling shot from the right corner and send Galway into their first final for 15 years.