'We have no one to blame but ourselves'

June 26, 2023

Mayo boss Kevin McStay and Galway manager Pádraic Joyce after the game ©INPHO/James Crombie

Padraic Joyce wasn't making any excuses after Galway were knocked out of the Sam Maguire by old rivals Mayo.

Runners-up to Kerry in last year's All-Ireland SFC final, the Tribesmen had high hopes of going one better this season, but exit at the preliminary quarter-final stage after losing by the minimum for the second Sunday in-a-row.

“We’ve no one to blame only ourselves,” the Galway manager admitted to reporters.

“Mayo were probably a bit better than us today, but we just missed too much. Even last week in Armagh, we shouldn’t have been in the position to be in here today. But we are, and we’re out of the championship now, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow.”

Joyce refused to blame Damien Comer's withdrawn with a hamstring injury at half-time for his side's defeat.

“The injury that took Damien off the pitch was not the winning or losing of the game,”he continued.

"Galway had 27 shots versus 20 for Mayo. They missed four frees from inside the 45. Two goal chances were fired straight at Colm Reape.

“We still had loads of chances in the second half. We had a great goal chance and we had a couple of wild shots at goal which we should have been tapping over the bar.  It is another year gone by again for Galway.” 


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