The Galway footballers left a valuable league point or two behind them at the weekend when they went down to Meath in Navan by 1-13 to 0-15 in round four of the NFL.
The visitors led by three points with 10 minutes remaining after producing some good football, but they did not push on and a late Meath goal scuppered their chances of collecting any points.
Division two seems to have no rhyme nor reason to it at the moment, with Clare beating Cork, and Down trouncing Derry last weekend. Calling a winner in any game is difficult, and promotion is still up for grabs in this division.
The Galway players and management know they will need to win at least two of their next three games, and hope some other teams drop some points, if they are going to be playing division one football next season.
Possible promotion is still totally within their control, and if they play to their optimum, they are well capable of beating Derry in Tuam in two weeks' time and that would set them up for a tilt against Down (away ) and Kildare at home on April 2.
However, for those league points to come Galway's way the starting 15 and subs will need to become more consistent over the full 70 minutes of each game.
Too often over the past few seasons, they have mixed the sublime with the ridiculous within the one game and that needs to be addressed.
Last Sunday was a case in point. They started reasonably well for 10 minutes and then seemed to lose their way. They were quite poor for the rest of the first half, and were deservedly behind by 0-8 to 0-4 at half time.
Then, as they are well capable, they produced a good run in the third quarter and led by three points with 10 minutes to go, but then coughed up two points and a decisive goal to the impressive Donal Lenihan with five minutes remaining.
The home side was two in front then and, after Johnny Heaney notched a point, Galway did have an opportunity to equalise. However Danny Cummins, who did really well on his introduction for an out-of-sorts Michael Lundy, took the wrong option when in possession and went for a shot that was never really on and put it wide.
Damien Comer's unavailability
The continuing absence of Annaghdown's Damien Comer with a broken bone in his foot was costly last Sunday as his power and ability to win aerial ball was badly missed. It is fair to suggest he would have been worth a few scores to the maroon cause.
Damien is unlikely to be back for any of the next few league games and that is a blow. However, perhaps his absence might give Michael Farragher, who has been a really impressive performer for Corofin over the past few seasons, some game time.
Promotion to division one would represent genuine progress for this panel and it would be good for the development of all the squad to be playing the top teams in the country on a regular basis, especially for young players such Michael Daly, Rory Lavelle, Johnny Heaney, Eamon Brannigan, Liam Silke and Barry McHugh.
The first rung in that potential promotion ladder is Derry in Tuam on Sunday week, in a double header with the Galway Ladies.
It is a game Galway should be well capable of winning and, if they can bring a genuine consistency of performance all over the field for the full 70 minutes, they will.
Galway team v Meath: R Lavelle, D Kyne, D Walsh, C Sweeney, G O’Donnell (0-1 ), G Bradshaw, L Silke (0-1 ), P Conroy (0-3 ) (1f ), F O Curraoin, T Flynn (0-1 ), M Daly (0-2 ), E Brannigan, S Walsh (0-1 ), B McHugh (0-5, 3fs, 1 45 ), M Lundy. Subs used: D Cummins for Lundy (27 ), J Heaney (0-1 ) for Daly (61 ), G Sice for McHugh (68 ),
