After Galway’s crushing defeat on Sunday it is difficult to look ahead with any degree of confidence, but Galway must pick themselves up, and fast, or they will find themselves out of the 2011 championship after two consecutive defeats.
Team manager Tomás Ó Flatharta was not making any excuses for the poor display by his team, but he did acknowledge that Mayo’s extra championship game was an advantage.
“The 11-week lay off maybe didn’t help us, so hopefully this game will battle harden us for two weeks’ time,” he said.
“We go into the qualifiers with a game behind us so we have to pick it up ourselves. It is up to ourselves how we get on from here.”
The former Westmeath manager acknowledged Galway’s poor use of possession and an inability to win breaking ball were key factors that cost Galway dearly.
“We gave some silly ball away. They got 1-4 out of it, and if we had won more breaking ball around the middle, it might have been different.”
Mayo manager James Horan suggested his side won the breaking ball contest 17 to 4 in the first half and, with stats like that, it is easy to see where Galway must improve if they are to compete with the Meath men.
