Galway manager Micheál Donoghue expressed satisfaction with the fact his side overcame Dublin to book their place in the Leinster hurling final but pointed to moments of inexperience that will need to be ironed out.
A first ever championship win over Dublin in the capital arrived via a 0-29 to 3-15 scoreline at Parnell Park and the Tribesmen will now go on to face Kilkenny in the provincial decider on 8 June.
But Donoghue told RTÉ Sport that he wasn't overjoyed by how his side finished the game, following the concession of two late goals, albeit the first-half and how it was managed was more to his liking.
"When we arrived the conditions were tricky and for both teams," he said.
"We elected to play against the wind and we probably gave ourselves a really good foundation in that (I'm) still maybe disappointed with the goal we conceded in the first half but I think up to half time, we were happy going in with a point up or whatever the score was.
"Obviously with that wind we could squeeze the puck outs and I think we had a really dominant period there for 10 or 15 minutes.
"But I think you can see still the inexperience that's in the group and we're still working with a lot of young fellas.
"They're learning the trade and obviously we wouldn't be happy with the last five or six minutes. Even when (Dublin) scored, we still responded but overall the last 10 minutes we wouldn't have been happy.
"But we realise that it's a tough place to come so happy with the result."
Galway manager Micheál Donoghue, player Fintan Burke and Dublin boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin react after Galway beat Dublin to book their spot in the Leinster SHC final pic.twitter.com/jSoEU591Y3
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In the first year of his second spell in charge, after two with the Dubs, Donoghue has tried to forge a new spine for the team, with Gavin Lee moving to centre-back and Conor Whelan dropping deeper to centre-forward.
But next up is a rematch with a Kilkenny side that hammered them by 12 points on day one as Galway seek a first provincial title in seven years against a team going for six in a row.
"We're still only a short time here and everything is still evolving for us," said Donoghue.
"We're still trying to get the magic number, if you like, of lads in their best positions.
"Today was good and we're happy. Still an awful lot of work-ons for the next two weeks but delighted to be there."
Dublin 3-15 Galway 0-29 highlights
While the first half pleased Donoghue, that was the facet of the game that left his Dublin counterpart Niall Ó Ceallacháin most disappointed.
"The first half we weren't at it, we weren't where we needed to be for whatever reason," he said.
"A big wind with us there, a lot of elements with us, you need to be getting to half-time there five, six, seven points up there at that point and we weren't.
"That scoring burst of 1-02 or 1-03 was well overdue at that point is what I'd say and would have been great to have that as a platform to drive on.
"Well done to [Galway]. I think in that first half, they won the toss and elected to go against that breeze, so they had a plan for that to suck the life out of it and things like that.
"So we really struggled in that first half and it made things very hard then in that second half."
Dublin will face the winners of the Joe McDonagh Cup final (Kildare or Laois) in an All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-final on the weekend of 14/15 June.
"We pride ourselves on the basics and having those as sharp as we can every time," said Ó Ceallacháin.
"You have to be executing those basics to a high level and we weren't good enough there.
"We'll look back and learn from it and see how we are in a couple of weeks time."