GALWAY boss Pádraic Joyce insisted that his side paid no attention to criticism from ‘gobshites’ ahead of yesterday’s dramatic Connacht SFC final win over Mayo.
A stoppage-time free from goalkeeper Connor Gleeson sealed a third consecutive provincial title for the Tribesmen.
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And Joyce said: “We were given no chance going into the game. A lot of talk about it.
“One thing I’ll say, you can never question the character of these boys and the way they train. We’ve had a troubling year with injuries and what-not, the loss of form as well, trying to get everyone right.
“I wouldn’t be overly happy with the performance but when you beat Mayo in the Connacht final, it was great. The character shown by the lads was fantastic.”
Prior to the 0-16 to 0-15 triumph, Joyce had tasted victory over Mayo just once in eight attempts since taking the reins in 2019.
He commented: “We all know stuff is written by different people that pressure was on us, pressure was on me as well.
“It was great to win it. It puts us into a group in two weeks’ time with Derry at home. We’ll celebrate tonight and do all that but we’re looking forward to the game.”
Galway will begin their All-Ireland SFC campaign with a home fixture against Mickey Harte’s crew on May 18/19.
Joyce added: “When you see articles written about different stuff on our side and nothing on the far side, it does get to you a little bit.
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“For the lads, I’m probably putting more pressure on them than anyone else. We know the talent that’s in the group. Hopefully we can push on.”
After surviving a semi-final scare against Sligo thanks to a last-gasp Rob Finnerty goal, Galway went on to complete their first Nestor Cup three-in-a-row since 1984.
Joyce said: “There are people out there, they can just pull out their phones and send a message on social media and it’s all over the place unfortunately.
“That’s the world that’s in it. We know there are a lot of gobshites out there. We let it in the left ear and out the right ear.
“I say to the lads, all that matters is what’s in our four walls. If we can get ourselves right, we’ll have no one to blame at the end of the year only ourselves if we don’t get where we want.”
