Galway Senior Hurling manager Anthony Cunningham was overcome with relief at the full-time whistle of today's 2012 GAA All-Ireland SHC Final at Croke Park as the Tribesmen were handed another chance at bridging a 24-year gap without the Liam MacCarthy Cup in their grasp.

It all came down to a 73rd minute piece of brillance from Joe Canning as he slotted a free over the crossbar, to bring his tally to 1-3 and more importantly ensure a replay.

"At the finish for the team who gets the last score there is always a bit of relief for them," he said.

"Whatever draw you get, whether it is the first round of a club Championship or an inter-county or a club final, we're delighted to be still in it.

"If we were walking out the door and weren't in it, we would be saying to ourselves we had gone so close and maybe let it slip, but we were delighted we didn't let it slip and we will kick on from this.

"It's a huge learning curve for our team. We are a young, developing team but it was always going to be tough against Kilkenny."

Galway blazed a trail early on in no small ball to the brillance of Canning who netted an early goal, but Kilkenny staged a strong comeback, kicking into overdrive in the second half as Cunningham's charges were forced to keep up with the pace of the hungry Cats.

"In an All Ireland final, if you are playing Kilkenny or if you are playing any team in an All-Ireland final, there is going to be periods where they have periods of dominance and we have periods of dominance," he added.

"Our period of dominance was early on, in the first half and probably the first 15 minutes of the second half. They kicked on and went ahead but then we came back, rallied with a great goal and rallied again and could have kicked on from that. A draw was a fair result for everybody.

"They were matching what we did in the first half. You are always going to get periods of dominance in any match. When we weathered the storm, we told them at half-time that this was going to go to the wire and to stay hurling."

"Even when things go bad, you still have to stay hurling. We showed great character and the support we had today was the 16th man for us. It was tremendous. We are delighted for all our supporters. They are going to get a version three of the saga for this summer.

"We know it is going to take a huge effort again to beat Kilkenny. They are a fantastic team, fantastic hurlers and we are going to have to be on top of our game. We are going to have to take our game back to Croke Park the next day, and so will they. It will still be very close. We will be driving on. It puts us in a great place." Tweet

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