Last season ended in disaster for Galway but hindsight shows luck deserted them and recent events suggest a team of real quality, writes Keith Duggan.

Out of the cold come Galway. After a distinctly unpromising beginning to the league, the maroon team are in pole position to make another return to the semi-finals of the competition. They host a struggling Down in Pearse Stadium tomorrow afternoon and a victory will probably see them qualify for the last four with absolutely no fanfare.

Given Galway's early-year form was marked by a defeat to Sligo IT in the provisional league final, it represents a significant reversal of fortune. Their recent victory away to Westmeath was probably the most impressive as it bore the hallmarks of the old Galway, with a lethal and stylish last-quarter performance that enabled them to put 1-5 on the Leinster side. It gave Galway their fourth win on the bounce and the most notable thing about those victories has been the radically different nature of each.

"Yeah, there seems to be no game which doesn't involve a minor heart attack for myself and everyone else on the sideline," acknowledged manager Peter Ford this week.

"I can't give an explanation for it, really. We were six points down against Armagh and really came into it in the second half. Then the opposite happened against Kildare but we ended up holding on and holding on.

"I suppose the way we won against Westmeath was pleasing and it was good for us to play them again and sort of get it out of the system."

Ford doesn't hesitate to admit that last summer's defeat to Tomás Ó Flatharta's men in the All-Ireland qualifying season marked the lowest point of his managerial career. It was the strangest game, an early Saturday-evening affair played in blazing sunshine and memorable more for chaotic crowd-management than for periods of bright play.

Westmeath were motivated and keen and exceptionally brave and deserved to pull through. The prize was considerable: a quarter-final date with Dublin in Croke Park.

As it turned out, Westmeath were routed in that quarter-final, but mentally, most Galway football people had expected to be there. Many interpreted that defeat as a deafening signal Galway were on the slide.

In the shrill criticism afterwards, however, the details of the day were quickly buried. Galway had suffered a disastrous run of luck with injuries. Seán Armstrong and Derek Savage, two blue-chip attackers, were long-term injury casualties. Paul Clancy, the team's most versatile player and the defensive linchpin during Galway's impressive league semi-final win in a tough, dour match against Mayo, was also out.

Damien Dunleavy, another regular, got injured at training. Fiachra Breathnach, the young Spiddal man who was named as a starter on the match programme, was floored with a stomach bug on the eve of the match.

His absence heralded the dramatic return of Ja Fallon, a selector of Ford's team who had joined in at training to make up numbers only to reveal he could still cut it at the top level. It was a bold experiment, and in the first 10 minutes it worked excellently. Then Fallon contested an aerial ball with the Westmeath goalkeeper Gary Connaughton and came out second best. Fourteen minutes in, he was back on the sideline.

It was also forgotten Galway had late chances to draw and even win the game, a combination of the capricious Salthill breeze and a miserable shooting day for Galway's reputed marksmen doing them down. All that mattered was that Galway lost.

"It was a huge shock," says Ford. "There is no doubt that the prospect of playing Dublin maybe subconsciously distracted us in the build-up to that game. And maybe there was a little bit of complacency.

"But when you're lining out without six of your forwards at your disposal, it is going to have an impact. And it would be wrong to take anything from Westmeath; they put in a serious performance that day."

It also didn't help that Galway had played a challenge game against Westmeath a few weeks beforehand and, fielding a deeply experimental selection, achieved a draw. So when the draw was made and Westmeath were sent travelling to Salthill, the mood in a team that still contained Pádraic Joyce, Michael Donnellan and Declan Meehan was one of certitude.

If there was complacency, it was the complacency of champions. And everybody underestimated the fortitude of Westmeath, who have maintained that impressive form in the league this year. That was why it was probably a relief for Galway to meet them again and chalk up a win.

They followed it with a notable victory over Louth in Dundalk, the first time any visiting team had won there this season. Fallon was named man of the match.

"Ja's decision to return was very surprising," admits his former team-mate Seán Ó Domhnaill. "People were wondering why this guy who had nothing to prove, who had done everything in a Galway shirt, would want to put himself through it all again. And when I spoke to him, I found the single biggest reason was he still loved playing, he still got the enjoyment out of training and lining out.

"And his return is hugely important. Galway football was suddenly faced with this situation where a lot of very big characters made an exit. There was no Kevin Walsh, there was no Seán Óg de Paor, there was no Gary Fahey.

"Suddenly this was predominantly a young team. And Ja's return brought a guy who can exert great control on a game, who has tremendous upper-body strength and is just a tremendous footballer.

"But in addition, he has vast experience. And that injury he got against Westmeath was serious, a collarbone. It is no joke to come back from something like that in your 30s. But he just got stuck into the gym and shrugged it off and he is back playing great football.

"I don't know how he manages it, to be honest, with a young family and on the road at a very early hour as a postman. It is a great show of faith in the Galway team, really."

Galway's slow charge to the pinnacle of the league semi-finals mirrors their form last year. This year has been slightly complicated by the imminence of the first-round championship match against Mayo. Having avoided each other all season, they could conceivably meet in the league final a month before they play each other "for real".

"It is all about how we do against Mayo in the championship," says Ford. "The same is true for any county. We want to concentrate on playing Down at the weekend and if it turns out that we meet Mayo along the way, so be it.

"There is still a full month between the league and the championship and we could use the games.

"Mayo are already through to the semi-final with a game to spare, which says a lot about their form. We are not in that position so we haven't really entertained what might happen."

But for Galway football people, being in contention is a good, healthy sign after the bleak state of affairs in January. The arrival of Ger Loughnane as hurling boss naturally eclipsed the profile of the football team and they have been able to quietly regain a footing in the shadows.

Since Ford accepted the serious task of taking over from John O'Mahony, he has already delivered an under-21 All-Ireland title and a Connacht championship. But the senior championship experience has been bittersweet.

In 2005, Galway gave a vintage first half against Cork in the All-Ireland quarter-final curtain-raiser, which seemed to signal that Micheál Meehan was in for a supernova month. But it did not last and Cork replied with an equally blistering second half.

It was a madly open game, in utter conflict with the caution and heavy numerical marking that governed the championship.

It could be argued Galway have not played so flamboyantly since, and certainly their league scores are indicative of a team that will give few cheap scores away. And despite the bad day against Westmeath, there has been dangerously little mention of Galway football in recent times.

"They do blow hot and cold," says Ó Domhnaill. "And I think it is a bit early to predict what they might do in the championship. In a way, nobody knows. What I do know is the players Peter Ford has in there have a lot of quality and are, pound for pound, the best in the county right now.

"The under-21 team are beginning to come through and people maybe forget that it takes time to make young players fit. Tyrone had the same problem when they won the under-21; it took them a couple of years to develop what is clearly a very good team. And this Galway team is not greatly experienced.

"But then you see Joyce kicking great football and Ja Fallon back there and Joe Bergin, whom we tend to think of as one of the old guys even though Joe is only 26. And it looks promising.

"But they have to learn as they go and the reality is there will be four teams or thereabouts challenging for the All-Ireland.

"It's hard to say whether Galway can be there but, as Kevin Walsh used to say, championships aren't won in April."

For now, a home victory over Down - another of the game's aristocratic counties - will do fine.