“I know nobody gave us a chance” – Padraic Joyce revels in famous scalp for Galway

“Maybe some people say we exaggerated a bit, but when you beat one of the best teams that has played football for 10, 15 years, you should always be very, very happy.

“I know nothing is won yet but we will calm them down. In two weeks we will bring them back here ready for an All-Ireland semi-final.”

Although it was Galway’s first championship win over Dublin since 1934, Joyce noted that the encounters were sporadic. “I played for Galway for 14 years,” he said. “I never faced Dublin in a championship game. We only played them a couple of times, so I wouldn’t put too much weight on that statistic.”

He admired the way his team recovered from a five-point deficit and overcame further injuries to captain Sean Kelly and talented goalscorer Shane Walsh, both of whom were unable to finish the game.

“Look, I felt even in the first half that they probably showed a bit too much respect. In some ways they didn’t apply enough pressure. But obviously I felt that when Dublin put the three guys (James McCarthy, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion) on, they were going to come at us hard. We knew that, we probably haven’t started our games as hard and as well as we should have in the last few games.

“So they had the best players, probably on the pitch from the start, no more than us. So it was a real battle, a real championship game, with everything on the line the whole time. Fantastic football played by both sides. Fantastic goals, blocked tackles.

“It’s very difficult to watch when you’re on the line and you’re just trying to watch a team. But I’m sure people talk about rule changes in football, but whether that’s even necessary after a game like that, I’m not sure. But yeah, I’m excited, yes.”

He considered a good start to the second half to be crucial after trailing by four points at halftime.

“Right after half-time Cillian (McDaid) scored and that was our only goal for the first five, ten minutes after half-time because if Dublin had scored the first one or two points the game would have been over for sure, they would have been six points ahead.

“So we have to fight back, stay in the game and see it through to the end. You know, in the past we’ve been questioned about our soft mentality and not trying to finish games.

“But to be fair, we lads worked hard anyway. We were two goals up, Johnny Heaney came on the run and probably should have kept going, he had a man inside for a goal chance but he missed. And to be honest, thankfully that didn’t come back to haunt us.”

He reflected on the team selection, particularly the decision to start Damien Comer and Shane Walsh despite injury concerns.

“You’re a genius when it works and a clown when it doesn’t. There was no point in having a bench full of Damien Comers and Shane Walshs and then bringing them on and trying to win the game from seven or eight points down. We took a risk and tried to keep them in the game as long as we could. We tried to keep Damien as close to the goal as possible, which worked out quite well. Cein D’Arcy was a bit knocked, he was a loss for us, but then he came on. Of course, the nature of the injuries meant that unfortunately we played the last six, seven, eight minutes with probably 13 fully fit players on the pitch. But we got through it.”

This included the loss of captain Kelly in the first half.

“He’s our leader but for me as a manager it’s a pleasing thing that we can just make a change. Cein D’Arcy can come in and nothing will be affected. That’s probably a byproduct of our injuries earlier in the year. We developed our squad massively during the league and the Connacht Championship. And we’ve got 26 guys now and when you look back at the bench behind them, they can all have an impact which is great.”

He said Walsh’s injury, which forced his substitution after 65 minutes, “didn’t look too good” but said the two-week break would give him a chance to recover for the semi-final.

“We’ve played three games in a fortnight and they were tough games against Armagh, Monaghan and Dublin, three quality teams. The boys’ bodies are sore, there’s no doubt about that. We’ll have a chat here at Glenroyal when we get out and then see where it goes. We’ll probably leave them out for a day or two, reassess the situation, watch the games tomorrow and see who’s in the draw and get fit for two weeks.”

An All-Ireland semi-final would be a huge boost for the county, Joyce said.

“It’s great for Galway, it’s great for the fans, I thought they were brilliant. I know nobody gave us a chance, they would secretly text you saying ‘I hope you do well’, but the people in the room who mattered knew we had a big chance. We knew what we had to do and thankfully it worked out and at least our fans can be happy again in two weeks.”