From www.castlebar.ie Gaelic Games
To tell you the truth I expected more out of this team after last year's roller coaster ride but sure what can you do? Some good performances by our newer players and a number of our better players were marked out of it. Overall it made for a very poor game of football but hats off to Peter Ford, he had a game plan and he pulled off a win. Don't know what it is about these Galway lads but they seem to need the brains of a Mayo man to bring out the best in them ;-) Conditions were fantastic, not a breath of air, clear skies, perfect surface in Pearse Stadium but the heat was oppressive. We were blessed to be sitting in the shade of the stand for the minor game and a lot of the senior game but everyone in the Terraces was baked alive, so how the players managed to cope with those conditions I'll never know. Everyone who played football on that pitch deserved the full respect of anyone watching. It was a long, long day - up early to beautiful blue skies in Castlebar which clouded (fogged over) until we hit the outskirts of Galway. God but it was like being out on the Continent once that mist boiled off - you could see it receding out across Galway Bay as we breakfasted with the holidaymakers and Mayo people who'd stayed over and 'gone on the rip' the previous night in Galway. Breakfasted and a few small wagers placed with Mr Powers, and off we hit up the side of Leisureland through the gorgeous, cooling shade of the trees and onwards to the cauldron of Pearse Stadium. So onwards through the back door - not a bad route if you can gain a head of steam along the way so who knows.
For the Full Gallery of Photos taken by Green n Red Forever at the Connacht Final - 10 July 2005 © Copyright 2003 by www.castlebar.ie and the author |