By Micil Glennon
Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly was left ruing last week's missed opportunity as he saw his side relegated from division 1A of the Allianz hurling league.
The Dubs had a three-point lead late in the second half in the drawn game in Tullamore last week but were forced into extra time by a late Joe Canning blitz.
Dublin then had to come from behind in additional time to force a replay.
Daly saw his side comprehensively beaten, 4-21 to 0-19, in Portlaoise and felt that they should have secured their top-tier status last Saturday.
"We probably should have killed it off [last week]...when we were three ahead and we got punished for it but Galway deserved it. [It’s a] fine line six days later," Daly told RTÉ Sport.
At the finish the Metropolitans were on the end of a 14-point defeat, having only been a point down at half-time, 1-11 to 0-13. The former All-Ireland winner felt that the game turned on a couple of crucial moments.
Daly said: "The scoreline was hard to take all right. We’d have been delighted with the first-half performance.
"We felt we should have been ahead and I suppose the match was in the balance and we probably hesitated for a crucial ball and once it goes to six points, and if they get the next couple of scores, what do they do then only go and get another goal and the game was probably dead then.
"At this level you have to be more clinical and we just weren’t on the day."
"Fair play to Galway, when Joe [Canning] got the chance, what a finish. He showed his class. We needed to do that when we got the chance and we didn’t do it. You can look at the scoreline and say you were hammered but matches can go like that.”
Dublin will play the winners of Laois and Carlow in the Leinster championship at the start of June.
