PADRAIC JOYCE HAILED his Galway players after their dramatic comeback dumped Dublin out of the All-Ireland championship and booked their semi-final place.

Trailing by four points at half-time, Joyce saw his team peg the champions back to claim a famous success in Croke Park that has blown the Sam Maguire title race wide open.

“Dublin have lost two games in Croke Park in 10 years, that’s the third one. Everybody writting us off and not giving us a chance, not giving us the respect we deserve as a team that’s undefeated all year long, so look, it was a fantastic win for us.

“I’m sure people talk about rule changes being made in football but is there a need after watching a game like that, I’m not so sure.

“The team that started, the team that finished, we were forced into it. But to a man, I thought our lads were absolutely outstanding. There’s emotional scenes at the end there.

“Maybe you can say we might have over celebrated a bit, but any day you beat one of the best teams that has played football for 10, 15 years, you should be very, very happy.

“I know there’s nothing won, but we’ll get them calmed down. We’ll get them back again here in two weeks time, ready for an All-Ireland semi final.”

Galway targetted a strong start to the second half which enabled them to triumph, while their subs made a major impact.

“You’re a genius when it works out and you’re a clown when it doesn’t work out. There was no point in us having a bench full of Damien Comers and Shane Walshes and then bringing them on and trying to chase the game from seven or eight points down.

“We took a gamble on it and tried to keep them in the game as long as we can. We tried to keep Damien as close to the goal as we could, which worked out all right. Cein D’Arcy had a bit of a knock, he was a loss to us but then he came on. Obviously, the nature of injuries, we played the last six, seven, eight minutes with probably 13 fully fit bodies on the pitch, unfortunately. But we got over it.”

Padraic Joyce consoles James McCarthy after the game. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Joyce was delighted for the Galway supporters who witnessed such a victory.

“It’s great for Galway, it’s great for supporters, I thought they were brilliant. I know no-one gave us a prayer, quietly they’d be texting you saying ‘I hope you do well’, but the people inside the room that mattered knew that we had a great chance. We knew what we had to do, and thankfully, it came off and at least our supporters can get excited about two weeks’ time again.”

The calibre of opponent they defeated sweetened the taste of success for Galway.

“To beat Dublin in Croke Park in their own back yard is special. As I said earlier, I never got a chance to play Dublin in Croke Park. It’s where you want to be. You want to test yourself against the best and they are the best.

“Mick Fitzsimons, James McCarthy and Stephen Cluxton are absolute giants of the game, they’ve transformed the game and changed the game and, look, it’s an honour to be on the pitch with them and obvious delighted to get the win over them.”