Comeback king Durcan hails control and composure of players

Paddy Durcan said the unity of the Mayo squad was central to their eye-catching win against Tyrone last Saturday, writes Anthony Hennigan.

Durcan kicked three points from play in his first start since a serious knee injury sustained in last year’s championship. Match broadcaster GAA+ named the Castlebar Mitchels half-back as Man-of-the-Match and speaking afterwards was asked to explain the level of improvement since Mayo’s loss to Cavan a fortnight earlier.

“We knew we had to get back to brass tacks, working hard for one another, the simple facets of the game that don’t really take much talent. I thought we brought that and a lot more in spades, which we needed.

“It probably wasn’t there two weeks ago,” admitted Durcan. “We knew it was a big game tonight and that we had to react. Tyrone are a brilliant team and a lot of it was just hard work and graft, and probably a lot more control as well.” Never was that control so evident as when Mayo saw an eight point lead at the start of the second-half eroded to just one, before recovering to dominate the final quarter of the match.

“We knew at half-time they were going to come with a reaction, we just had to stay the par for the course. They did get it back towards us but thankfully, we showed a bit more control and composure down the stretch. The subs made a big difference too,” said Paddy Durcan, who added: “We have a really strong panel, a lot of young fellas who are pushing and waiting for opportunities. A couple of them took them tonight. We’ve a couple of guys working their way back in the background and hopefully they’ll be able to drive things on in two weeks’ time too.”