Padraic Joyce praised his Galway charges for picking up the pieces from their hammering in Kerry in a Championship dress rehearsal with Roscommon.
The sides meet on July 4 in a Connacht semi-final and after the drubbing in Tralee, this was a fairly significant win for Galway – their first competitive victory since hammering Tyrone in February last year.
The Tribe were in the driving seat once Damien Comer set Paul Kelly up for a goal inside three minutes against the wind.
“You’d have to be proud of the lads,” said Joyce. “They worked hard and put a bit of pride and passion back in the jersey and got the result they deserved in the end.”
That goal from Kelly helped Galway lead by 1-7 to 0-8 at the break, with Roscommon only managing two points from play with the wind when skipper Enda Smith and Ciarain Murtagh found the range.
At the other end Rob Finnerty was in superb form for Galway, kicking four points before the break and adding a fifth in the second-half, all of them from play except for the opener from a mark.
Three points from Shane Walsh and another from Finnerty, with Donie Smith and Murtagh responding, left Galway leading by 1-11 to 0-10 after 47 minutes and they took a four points lead into the second water break after Walsh and Donie Smith exchanged points.
Donie Smith added a free to cut the gap to a goal with 13 minutes remaining but Comer landed a good effort to restore their four-point advantage before Walsh pushed it out to five with a superb point from play.
Ciarain Murtagh gave Roscommon hope when he fisted a Shane Killoran delivery to the net but then Galway found the net when Tomo Culhane fisted home after goalkeeper Lavin failed to deal with a delivery from another sub Dessie Conneely, leaving
Roscommon without a point after two games.
“The positive for us is that we played well to get back in the match, to get a great goal, but then to concede a goal straight after is something that can’t happen at this level because the game was effectively over then,” said Cunningham.
“That’s disappointing but something we will be working on week on week and hopefully we will be all set for the 4th of July, which is our big day of destiny this year.”
