Christy O'Connor released himself from the series of headlocks in which his team-mates had placed him. His back reddened from the slapping, his face flushed with the emotion, he started with the bad stuff and built towards the good.

"Their goal? I couldn't believe it. I thought it was going over the bar, I tried to take it down with the stick. Jeez! You are hoping for an early shot to get you going and then that happens and you say `here we go'."

But then there was that save. In the dying seconds, with the crowd baying for a twist, the ball dropped behind the Doora full-back line between two idling Galway forwards. Brendan Keogh reacted quickest and in the mind's eye the ball was in the net already. Christy O'Connor had a different version, though.

"I just said I wasn't going to stop this with my stick. I saw it going up in the air and it came down to him. I knew I wouldn't have much chance so I threw myself at it. That was it. I played Fitzgibbon Cup a few years ago and the same thing happened and there were 10 people there. These are the days you want it to happen. I can't believe it."

Days like this. Only manufactured in one place.

Down the corridor the beaten team had wounds to lick. Athenry selector Sean Hynes pointed at the score which had been denied Cathal Moran after a brief debate between umpires and referee in the final quarter.

"So many GAA matches end in this controversy - the ball is wide or over and teams are bickering. The onus is on the GAA to find a system, a more sophisticated method of finding what is a score and what is not a score. There is no excuse.

"I'm saying it is a dispute and there is no excuse. We need an electronic system, there must be something. It is difficult for an umpire looking up. We are very disappointed, but fair play to Doora-Barefield, they put up a marvellous display."