Walsh: Sending-off swung it

By Alan Dooley

IT was only after the final whistle had blown, only after descending from the relative comfort of the jam-packed stand in Newbridge down onto a pitch that has arguably hosted two of the finest games of the season that you realised just how difficult and taxing the conditions were for both sets of players, and how admirable their efforts were in an epic tussle.

Searing heat with barely a whiff of a breeze to speak of engulfed the band of ecstatic Galway supporters who acclaimed a group of players who had just recorded their fifth championship win of the season over a game Kildare side.
Twenty years ago, a run of five wins that ended with victory over the Lilywhites brought Sam Maguire back west, but on this occasion a place in the last four after a 17-year absence was Galway’s merited reward.

Read our full coverage of Galway's win over Kildare in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald