Galway captain Gary O'Donnell the team "went back to basics" after their disappointing Connacht final display to topple Donegal yesterday.

The Tribesmen returned to the All-Ireland quarter-finals with a powerful performance at Sligo's Markievicz Park, where they ran out 15-point winners over Rory Gallagher's side and afterwards O'Donnell hailed the team's character.

"A lot of people probably wrote us off two weeks ago (after the provincial final defeat to Roscommon) and probably rightly so at times, but we know we've great potential and quality footballers in our team," he told RTE Sport.

"We knuckled down the last two weeks and we're delighted we got a performance. 

"We went back to basics, breaking ball, tackling and working really hard. There's great potential in the team, we know that. I just think lads ground it out and got stuck in."

He added: "The competition for places is huge at the moment. Lads knew if they did take a step back they'd be replaced.

"We've great quality on the subs' bench; lads will be looking for places for the quarter-final as well."

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