Galway minor manager Alan Mulholland dedicated Sunday's victory to his former Salthill colleague John Joyce, the midfielder who led the side to victory in 1986 and who passed away ten years ago.

Mulholland, centre-back on that winning team 21 years ago, said that Sunday's win was a fair reward for the character shown all year by his charges, and reminded him of the sort of leadership John Joyce had shown in '86.

"This year is the 10th anniversary of my great friend John Joyce and he clearly was looking down on us today," said Mulholland.

The Salthill man said he thought Derry were going to hold out and that was what made victory all the sweeter.

"It was when the chips were down that the character of the team shone through. With three minutes to go we needed to score at least four points to win the game and credit to the lads, they never lost their nerve, and kept plugging away.

"Twenty one years is a long time for a county like Galway to be without a minor title. It's been a long time coming. A monkey has been lifted off the backs of the 1986 team of which I was a member.

"It's been a privilege being involved with these lads. There are some great leaders among them, but I sincerely hope they are given time to develop and become physically stronger before they move into senior ranks," he said.

Mulholland said that throughout the year different players had stepped up to the task and on Sunday it was Damian Reddington who seized the moment late in the game.

"He made the decisive decision to go for the goal and that takes a certain amount of character — particularly at this level. Fortunately he found the net. But we had talked about that during the campaign, that if we got a sniff of a goal, take the chance. Thankfully Damien did and as they say, the rest is now history," added the victorious manager.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment