The Galway footballers will head into the up-coming championship in three weeks’ time against New York with a little bit of momentum behind them after recording two victories in a row, over Roscommon and then Kildare last Sunday in the last round of the league.
Kevin Walsh's side beat Kildare by 3-12 to 1-12 at a sun-drenched Tuam Stadium, and in doing so ensured Jason Ryan's side drop two divisions in 24 months.
Galway were lively in the first half and led by 1-10 to 0-7 at the small whistle. However, they could have been further ahead, if they had been more ruthless in front of goals.
Both Seán Denvir and Patrick Sweeney spurned goal-scoring opportunities and it took Kilkerrin/Clonberne's Shane Walsh to raise the green flag with a smartly-taken goal after impressive build up play from Gary Sice and Peadar Ó Gríofa.
Galway handed the initiative back to Kildare at the start of the second half as the visitors hit the first three points through Eoghan O'Flaherty, Alan Smith and Daniel Flynn.
However Galway were back on track with a fortunate enough goal from Fiontán Ó Curraoin, and Walsh added a third after a good save from Manus Breathnach led to a rapid counter-attack which saw Galway lead by 3-10 to 0-10.
A genuine concern for Galway is that they did not score any points from play in that entire second half and there is plenty of work to be done over the coming weeks and months before anyone could seriously contemplate beating the likes of a seasoned Mayo outfit in championship football.
Team manager Kevin Walsh was not getting carried away with the team's recent successes and, as always, was pragmatic in his outlook.
"It was a good win and we'll take it. We have a lot of integration to do as a team and the championship is coming up to us fast. We will take a few days off and get back to work at the weekend. The last two games of the league were backs to the wall stuff, and we were pleased to have won and now we will build on things from there."
Walsh is taking a strategic view in all that he and his management team are doing and that has been reflected in all his post match quotes from the entire league.
"We want to play together in a way that everyone knows what they have to do. A positive is that we could have won all our league games. However, you learn a lot in defeat too and that is the way it is. Our players backed each up over the past few games and that is important. Hopefully we will get everyone back from injury over the coming weeks and we'll take it from there, and build on where we are for the championship."
Galway: M Breathnach (0-01, '45 ), J Duane, F Hanley, C Sweeney. G O'Donnell, G Bradshaw, P Varley, F Ó Curraoin (1-01 ), P Conroy (0-03, 0-02 frees ), G Sice (0-01 ), S Walsh (2-01 ), S Denvir, P Ó Gríofa (0-04, 0-03 frees ), P Sweeney (0-01 ), M Lundy.Subs: L Silke for Bradshaw (40 mins ), D Comer for P Sweeney (46 mins ), A Varley for Comer (54 mins ), C Healy for O’Griofa (70 mins ), E Hoare for Denvir (70 mins ).
