KERRY MANAGER Pat O'Shea was mightily relieved afterwards and put this Lark in the Dark into perspective saying: "When Galway went two points up in the second half, we did look in trouble.

"To a man, our lads responded and it was a fantastic second-half performance - by both teams. The conditions were nearly impossible to be fair. The scores that were got in the second half, by both teams, is a testament to the players out there.

"We don't talk enough about the players that we have in our games, we don't appreciate enough what players have to go through - in those kind of conditions and under the pressure of this time of the year.

"We would have had the greatest respect for Galway. Galway are probably the purest footballers in the country, they have always played great football. When we went behind I was worried because Galway had the momentum at that stage.

"Joe Bergin had made an impact when coming in at full-forward and they started to get some good quality ball into them, and we looked to be in a little spot of bother. Thankfully we were able to rescue the situation - we got a bit more support and cover and finished strongly again."

O'Shea was happy with the way Kerry moved the ball in monsoon-like conditions in the second half. "I think that we moved the ball well in the second half once we got it into the Galway half. Good options were taken and a lot of these lads have been around for the last number of years. Really they have been down this road so many times that I suppose they know what to expect. However, it gets harder from here on in."

Does the Kerry boss feel Kerry are back in track for three in a row? "I think we are getting there, obviously every day helps you, particularly when you are winning. It gives a little bit more confidence to the team. We will go back and we will regroup and we will take a look at the Cork-Kildare game and then plan ahead for the semi-final."

Galway manager Liam Sammon was understandably disappointed but was also happy that his side had performed well against a good side: "It was just a great game of football and we are certainly very disappointed. We came up here thinking that we had a great chance and a belief that we could win this game, and there were times in that game, yes when I thought we were going to win it.

"But Kerry are such a marvellous team that every time you snap at their heels or get ahead of them, they are able to come back and take their scores. They will punish you for any mistake you make in any part of the field - they are a great team. I think that credit is due to both sets of players who were out there today because in atrocious conditions, they gave us a great game of football.

"Any team that beats Kerry will win the All-Ireland, that's for sure. Looking back I think that it has been a successful year for Galway as we brought on a number of young players."