All-Ireland Club Football Championship Semi-final: Fifteen years ago Eoin O'Donnellan was vice-captain when Salthill qualified for the club's only previous All-Ireland final, an unhappy afternoon against Lavey.

It's been a bumpy ride in the interim with the club even dropping back to intermediate before winning a second Galway title. But once more they've got full value from the win and their season will take them to the ultimate stage, next month's final in Croke Park.

Yesterday's semi-final against Dublin's Kilmacud Crokes, played in front of 5,000 people at Pearse Park, Longford, required a much improved second-half display to take the Galway side down the new motorway to Dublin for St Patrick's Day.

"At half-time our players were sitting there," said O'Donnellan, now the team manager, "and they knew they had only 30 minutes to rectify things and win the match. They went out to give it everything and not leave anything out there, win or lose."

The big improvement at centrefield, where captain Maurice Sheridan and big David Gilmartin raised their game on the opposing Magee brothers, was, he felt, a natural consequence of conditions.

"This pitch is a long pitch and with a stiff breeze it was always going to be difficult to get out of defence. We were making a few fundamental errors and weren't getting our hands on the football. But when you're two points down with the breeze to come in the second half, you're in with a good shout.

"Work, commitment and concentration throughout and hunger are what did it for us. You've got to bear in mind that the average age of this team is around 26 and they've probably had more downs than ups. For some of them this might be their last chance to get to Croke Park for a major final."

Sheridan, twice an All-Ireland finalist with Mayo in the 1990s, distanced himself from suggestions of a personal crusade.

"It's not about myself, it's about the whole team. I know it's an old cliche but it's about the whole squad. At least we're there. I wasn't thinking about an All-Ireland title but maybe I'll start thinking about it in the morning."

Kilmacud's manager Nicky McGrath felt his team's slow start - six wides in the first 13 minutes - was a major disadvantage: "I think it was eight or nine wides in the first half and in the first 10 minutes, we didn't get up to the tempo of the game and as a result Salthill got 1-1. The goal they got was vital, coming so early in the game and it took our lads a little longer than normal to get back into the game.

"However, they did get back into the game and fought bravely the whole way through. They never gave up, never dropped their heads and I'm very proud of those lads. It just didn't work for them on the day but they've given us a great season, back-to-back county titles and a Leinster championship.

"The opposition won it fairly and squarely on the day. We have no argument with it. I thought the red card for Mark Vaughan was a bit harsh but we respect the referee's decision in everything."

Vaughan would have been given the line anyway given that he was already on a yellow card but his manager played down his own intervention at the end when he appeared to guide his player away from referee Joe McQuillan. "Ah no, no. Mark Vaughan is a fine young man, a great footballer, an honest young fella who gives it his all. He was disappointed to be sent off and maybe felt a bit hard done by."