The Galway senior footballers came back from a seemingly impossible position at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday afternoon to salvage what could be very important league point when recording a 1-15 to 1-15 draw with Kieran McGeeney's Armagh.
Claregalway's Danny Cummins was the player who scored the all-important goal in the seventh minute of injury time after Galway had trailed by 1-15 to 0-10 after 58 minutes.
Coming from such a long way back to grab a draw can only be good for the team's morale and self-belief and augurs well for the tests that lie ahead.
The side was nine points down to Meath at half time two weeks ago and now, after coming from eight down to draw with Armagh, shows the resilient streak that has been missing for a few years - a point team manager Kevin Walsh was quick to highlight.
“These boys have been ridiculed for the last number of years for having no fight when things go wrong,” said Walsh.
“But things did go wrong against Armagh and that’s twice in a row now where they have fought back really well. And we are proud of the spirit, work-rate and belief in themselves that they showed to do so. They are showing the attitude to keep going no matter what, that all good teams must have.
“This time last year we lost two eight-point leads against Laois and Cavan in the league, so it’s a bit different now and hopefully we can build on that platform of working hard for the entire duration of a match."
The sides were level at 0-9 each at half time, and Shane Walsh did put Galway ahead briefly after the restart.
However, Armagh really raised their game after the dismissal of Ethan Rafferty and they scored 1-6 without reply with the hugely impressive Stefan Campbell drilling home a 53rd minute penalty as part of his overall tally of 1-9, including 0-7 from play in the first half.
Galway snatch a draw
To their credit, Galway finished really strongly with 1-5 on the bounce with Paul Conroy and Cummins pointing, plus a free and a 45 from Shane Walsh, bringing them back into contention.
Galway were three points behind in injury time when they started to rain in a few high balls onto the Armagh full-back line as they searched for a goal to equalise.
The Armagh goalkeeper made a wonderful save from a Damien Comer flick and it looked like the last action of the game, but there was still time for one final twist. Another Galway sub, Sean Denvir’s long ball into the danger area was punched home at the back post by Cummins to grab a draw that felt like a win for Galway. It gives them a possible chance of getting out of division two if they can produce two big performances and winning displays against Fermanagh and Cavan in their last two league games.
Galway: M Breathnach, D Wynne, D Kyne, C Sweeney, L Silke (0-1 ), G O’Donnell (Cpt ), J Heaney, F O' Curraoin, P Conroy (0-2 ), T Flynn, E Hoare (0-4, one free ), G Sice (0-1 (f ). S Walsh 0-4 (1f, 1 ‘45’ ), A Varley (0-1 ), D Comer (0-1 ). Subs used, S Denvir for Wynne (49 ), D Cummins (1-1 ) for Varley (49 ), G Bradshaw for Kyne (63 ), E Brannigan for Sice (64 ).
