Delighted McStay at a loss to explain slow start

Two games, two wins and four points. Kevin McStay could not have asked for more last Saturday night as Mayo took a giant step towards securing Division 1 football for next year.

Just when it seemed that Mayo and Dublin were all set for a draw, Ryan O’Donoghue’s clever free found the unmarked Fergal Boland and the Aghamore man fired over the winning point following a frantic finale that saw both teams miss chances to win the game.

“Delighted with the two points anyway, I can tell you that,” said Kevin McStay afterwards. “I’d have taken one on the second last play. So the two points are really valuable to us, that’s four and if we can get another two now somewhere in February we’ll feel like we’ll be in a position where we can think about what’s ahead of us.

“So I’m really pleased with the last free, the way he (O’Donoghue) took it. I love that. He was clued in, he knows he was never going to get it from that position and he backed himself to make that pass and of course, Fergal then fires it over. So that was a bonus point both ways. That was great, so very pleased with that.” 

A win for Mayo looked very unlikely after the opening 20 minutes where they laboured, while they also got off to a bad start in the second-half. But led inspirationally by Paddy Durcan, Mayo found a way back into the contest and McStay could not speak highly enough about his captain – although he was nearly at a loss to explain why Mayo were so flat.

“He’s our captain, a fantastic human being and a fantastic footballer. There's a lot left in Paddy, I can assure you. He's just a great fella for everything we want to do and he nearly single-handedly launched us in that second quarter.” 

On that first 20 minutes, McStay admitted: “I can’t explain that, I can’t, I just can’t. Because we were in the dressing room, mad for this game, we went after it as hard as we did last week.

“Just from week to week the challenges are different. There’s a different team in front of you who set up differently, who have vast experience.

“Even their subs that are coming on have seen so much of this type of action so it was a good contest and we have two points in the bag and I couldn’t be happier.” 

Reflecting on the second-half, he added: “Dublin’s conversion rate was off the charts, it was 80 per cent or something in the first-half. I think it dropped near the end but it wasn’t too far off that overall. They were very good. In one week, they did a turnaround obviously.

“But we got off to a bad start, not what we expected. We prepped well for it, we were trying things that didn’t happen, but we stayed at it, right to the very end. We showed enough courage to win it – but a draw would have been fair enough. It’s not linear. We’re not here moving pieces around a chessboard, you’re just getting fellas to drive onto the ball and go as hard as they can in January and February football. Of course, there’s things we’re working on but we’re going to be working on them in May and June and July.

“But we are definitely getting more competitive. Dublin go 5-1 and 6-2 up and we got a chance to reset at half-time and then came out and gave up the first three points. We didn’t give them away, Dublin generated them.

“But three points is a big lead in the National League in February, but we kept at it. And the goal of course was the break we needed. We said on the sideline that we’d get a break – they couldn’t keep shooting the lights out. And Stephen (Coen) popped up, like he pops up regularly.” 

Kevin McStay also confirmed that Conor Reid, who was making only his second league start, was taken off after ten minutes due to a hamstring injury while Eoghan McLaughlin was also withdrawn midway through the first-half after suffering a knock.

Mayo are next in action on Saturday week, February 17, when they visit Austin Stack Park in Tralee for a Round 3 clash with Kerry.