Donegal fans feast on Supermac’s while we hunger for something better

All or Nothing, the well-known Amazon Prime sports documentary series, normally consists of eight episodes which are roughly one hour long. All you’d need for Mayo would be a one-off episode of 70 minutes as we had it all before it ultimately came to nothing.

You could be forgiven if believing the script for the episode was a repeat of last year’s: goalkeeper takes a kickout in the final passage of play, Mayo aren’t cute enough to get the ball by any means necessary, and the opposition goes down the field to deny Mayo the result they need. While Dublin’s Cormac Costello sent Mayo into a Preliminary Quarter-Final where their journey ended last year, Donegal’s Ciaran Moore was not even that generous as his winner sent Mayo out full stop.

With a big crowd expected last Sunday, this scribe decided to get to Roscommon nice and early to beat the fans coming from the west and north. However, as I made a pitstop in Londis across from Hyde Park three hours before throw-in, the amount of Donegal fans already feasting on Supermac’s finest threw me a little. If there was anger about the venue chosen for this one – and Jim McGuinness fanned those flames more after the game – then Donegal fans were not letting it get to them. Perhaps they knew it would be their day, or they were just really excited about Supermac’s as they only have one in their own county, but I digress.

Their large presence already gave some indication that they were going to make the Hyde their own little fortress, just like Ballybofey has been for many years, and by the time throw-in arrived it looked like they had outnumbered their Mayo counterparts almost three to one.

For a team who didn’t need to win to advance – more on that later – they certainly made the better start with quick points from Peadar Mogan, one of which was a big chance on goal.

The Donegal corner-back was impressive all afternoon and was one of four defenders in green and yellow to score whereas Mayo defenders all to have scored in recent games, Rory Brickenden, Paddy Durcan, Stephen Coen, Jack Coyne and Enda Hession, were all unable to raise a flag of any kind. That’s not the reason Mayo failed to win but an overreliance on Ryan O’Donoghue and, to a lesser extent, Darren McHale on the day hurt Mayo on the scoreboard yet again.

Another Donegal defender, Eoghan Bán Gallagher, also had a goal chance but Mayo’s real issue was chances of their own not taken, especially with the wind at their backs. After Ciarán Moore’s black card, Mayo were never able to make much headway and Donegal’s three points lead at the break flattered the Green and Red, who had Ryan O’Donoghue, Matthew Ruane and Jordan Flynn fail with a number of long-range attempts for points.

The lack of two-point scores has been an issue for Mayo all year, more so the team’s (or management’s?) reluctance to take them on. Whether Mayo attempting these chances in the first-half was a dovetail away from the modus operandi or a sign of how badly they needed the scores was another example of how poor their first-half performance was.

Donegal kept Mayo at arm’s length for the first 20 minutes of the second-half and matters were not helped when Donnacha McHugh, who was doing an excellent job in curtailing the influence of Michael Murphy, picked up an injury. The Glenswilly man of Mayo heritage is as important to Donegal’s cause now as he ever was and once McHugh was withdrawn, he was immense from thereon in.

Mayo, who were second in the group standings before the game began, third when the teams were level and bottom when behind, then went top of the group and were on course for a path straight to the All-Ireland quarter-final after David McBrien’s 55th minute goal. A situation only unique to Mayo, as a similar scenario unfolded in the final game of the National League this year, only Donegal didn’t appear to want to win that as to reach the Division One would impede on that Ulster Championship preparations.

But here, Mayo were now in control of their own destiny yet lessons from the last two Connacht finals and the All-Ireland Preliminary Quarter-Final against Derry last season were not taken on board. Both Jack Carney and Paul Towey saw goal chances stopped by Shaun Patton yet it appeared Fergal Boland’s stunning point with sixteen seconds left on the clock had earned Mayo a share of the spoils. But their in-game management came to the fore for the wrong reasons yet again as Patton’s kickout found Moore and that signalled the death knell for Mayo.

Could Mayo have played keep ball until the hooter sounded and then went for the killer equaliser or winner? Should Moore have been taken out and the ball knocked out of play? Could Frank Irwin and a fit again Diarmuid O’Connor, two men who can strike a ball from distance, have come on for the closing minutes? The what ifs will ache many Mayo heads over the long winter and whether Kevin McStay and his management team will be there for 2026 is another story altogether.

But the hard reality was summed it up by Rochford afterwards: “We’re out of the championship; there’s no other way to put it.”