Henry Shefflin was pleased that his Galway side battled back to earn a share a spoils against what he felt was a more efficient Kilkenny outfit in Sunday's Leinster SHC round-robin clash at Pearse Stadium.
A point from Galway captain Conor Whelan in the fifth minute of added time ensured parity, just as it was when the counties met at the same stage of the championship in 2023.
The hosts, despite starting well against the breeze, found themselves four behind at the break. Thirteen of Kilkenny's 16 first-half points came from play. And while the Cats looked on course for victory going into stoppage time, leading by two points, Evan Niland would go on to raise a white flag in advance of Whelan's levelling score.
On securing a share of the spoils, the Galway boss told RTÉ Sport: "After 20 minutes I would have been disappointed with the result but after 72 minutes I'm very happy with the result.
"It was an up and down performance from ourselves. We did well to grab an equaliser coming down the home straight to get something from the game."
Galway and Kilkenny finish level as Conor Whelan scores with the last action of the game
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Expanding more on the resolve shown by his side in those dying moments, Shefflin added: "This is my third year here and I know that they very much want it; they try very, very hard and that's what they gave today.
"The story of the game for me was Kilkenny's efficiency which is always high. They were up at 70% and we were at 60%, so that meant we were chasing the game near the end. If we had taken a few chances we might have gone ahead. That's the brilliance of Kilkenny; that's the way they go about it no matter who they play and we knew that in advance of the game.
"The breeze was strong enough [in the second half] and I felt we could kick on but Kilkenny started to hurt us at midfield and around the half-forward line. To be fair to our group, and we have a strong group, they never threw in the towel and they kept coming. I felt we always had a chance to come back. I'm delighted."
Shefflin's former playing colleague Derek Lyng was a little disappointed in not seeing his Cats side take the full points on offer in Salthill.
"It's a little bit disappointing at the end when you cough up a lead - but you can't fault the effort," Lyng reflected.
"Galway got a good start and I think we hung on in there, especially when we had the wind and we needed to have a lead at half time.
"As the first half wore on we got the scores and got more into the game. I thought we managed things pretty well agains the wind in the second half; we created some good chances and took the majority of them. In the end we coughed up a few scores but that's the way it goes."
And while Kilkenny were short a number of regulars for their trip west, their coach hailed the character in the squad he has to pick from.
"We have a panel and we've been talking about that since the start of the year. We saw a lot of players throughout the league and they stepped up today. There are great characters in there and it's great to see that; we are going to need that as the year goes on."
