Kevin Walsh insisted Galway's self-destruction wasn't down to a more defensive second half approach at Pearse Stadium.
The Tribesmen went into their shell in the second half, only scoring two points when they had converted 10 first half opportunities.
Impressive as they were in the opening period, Walsh claimed later that the defending Connacht champs didn't trip themselves up by putting too many men behind the ball.
Walsh has bit back at accusations that his team are too defensively-minded and afterwards he argued "I don't think it was one of the reasons.
"Look it, there's a lot of guff out there about that, but at the end of the day we didn't get our hands on the ball when we needed to.
"There was no different instruction for the first half compared to the second half, and we've had our chat in there.
"But whether there was a change of mindset in being able to get the dirty ball...when you don't have the ball, you defend space, and when you have the ball, you attack space and that's what the boys did in the first half.
"The score in the first half was good in these conditions. So no different instruction but you need to get your hands on the ball, and we didn't do that."
Having reached the last four Connacht finals - all against Roscommon Galway won't be content to have failed to add to their 2016 and '18 victories.
"One thing for sure, it wasn't a consistent performance," acknowledged Walsh, who said that Damien Comer was in a race against time to be ready for the qualifiers.
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