Gaelic Games: You had to see it to believe it. On a freezing, wet day in Tuam - anointed as the home of Galway football on the crackling tannoy - Wexford brought to life a dream that could be classed not so much wild as insane.
The new boys of Division One football visited one of the great aristocratic homes of Gaelic football and swung from the chandeliers. Naked.
The small crowd of Galwegians who braved the bitter weather expecting to see their team make stylish progress towards the semi-finals discreetly shuffled out of the ground before the final whistle. But they could not help but turn to look at the scoreboard as dazed as ancient pagans before the sun god.
At the end, it read Wexford 5-12, Galway 1-7. It alone was an incredible sight, odd and powerful enough to wreak havoc on the cosmos. Nobody could take it in.
"Yeah, it's a good result," agreed visiting manager Pat Roe with flabbergasting understatement.
"I mean, look, Galway aren't as bad as they looked today and we aren't as good as we looked today. But we are happy we are not on the other end of that scoreline."
Wexford were superb, led with astonishing elan by the mesmerisingly skilful Mattie Forde. Although he landed a hat-trick of goals in three minutes late in the first half, it was his point on 22 minutes that made the biggest impression, a thing of true beauty reckoned by some locals to be as good a score as was ever made in Tuam Stadium. That is no mean boast. Forde finished with a personal total of 4-5. With each score, his finishing became more icily precise.
"The goals were killers," reckoned John O'Mahony grimly afterwards. The Galway manager was the first to note the topsy-turvy nature of this division. But this was through the looking glass. Trailing 3-7 to 0-3 at half-time, the talk in the stand was of who would lead the recovery. Somebody suggested Eugene Cloonan, as word of the hurler's scoring exploits in Waterford went around the ground.
Galway came out with intent, but when John Cooper got gloves to a great shot by Matt Clancy, they must have feared the worst. Four minutes later, David Fogarty netted at the other end. There ended the contest.
"It's the worst performance under our management," said O'Mahony flatly. "We have to say that. We are very disappointed. It was the manner of the loss. We just have to work it out internally and get it going again. But it is, it is very disappointing."
The Meehan boys must have felt they had entered a parallel universe, winning All-Irelands with Caltra on Wednesday and returning to the Galway fold in these mind-blowing circumstances. Nobody could remember when Galway had last shipped five goals; the 1951 championship was mentioned.
"It is painful, it really is," said O'Mahony.
Wexford could empathise. They have known such days. Now, they can press for a place in the semi-finals while Galway are poised on a mathematical tightrope swaying between the play-offs and relegation. How it all ends is anybody's guess.
