Fatigue a factor in ‘patchy’ display, says McStay

After four straight weekends in-a-row where Mayo were out for crucial games, including two with extensive travel – the trip to Dublin for the league final perhaps an unwelcome one – a ‘patchy’ performance from the Green and Red, as manager Kevin McStay described it, was maybe not a huge surprise last Sunday afternoon.

“Maybe the last four weeks has taken a lot out of us,” opined McStay, after a 2-20 to 2-17 win against Sligo. “Three of those games were very important games to keep our status. The final game against Donegal, obviously we couldn't take any chances with it.

“Probably not gaining enough momentum when we won key ball, just turning it over a little bit cheaply, just finding it hard to get rhythm,” is what he saw as the impact of that run, when his side commenced its Connacht SFC title bid against the Yeats County.

Ever the optimist, McStay chose from here to focus on the upsides, including championship debuts for Dylan Thornton, Davitt Neary, Fenton Kelly, Niall Coggins, Conal Dawson and Sean Morahan and, with the exception still of Tommy Conroy and Paddy Durcan, a clean bill of health.

“I'm going to concentrate on the positives now because we’re still in the championship, we're not out of it. It's Sligo that's out of it.

“The scoreline was decent. Certainly, we could have padded that out with a few more goals, a few great goal chances. We have to hope and plan that we'd be better at that. Ten or eleven different scorers, which is always welcome, and six championship debutants, which is great; gives them a feel first and we might be able to get another bit in the next round.” 

McStay confirmed that full-back Donnacha McHugh would be fine for the semi-final against Leitrim despite his second-half withdrawal with a blood injury, as will Jordan Flynn and Eoghan McLaughlin. Both were named in the match-day squad last Friday but were late withdrawals due to knocks, and McStay opted for discretion over valour.

“Anybody you know that has a sneeze, we're not going to take a chance.” 

It was no surprise to see starts for Fenton Kelly and Davitt Neary in championship, or Sean Morahan sprung off the bench, but the decision to start Dylan Thornton, who had not played a minute of league football, raised some eyebrows while Niall Coggins and Conal Dawson had cameos off the bench also on the back no league action.

“The league games are savage games and our status in the division was paramount to the whole Mayo GAA machine,” explained Kevin McStay. “Mayo needs to be in Division 1 all the time. There wasn't as much room as we'd like to experiment in those matches. They're very high level games.

“We got ourselves into a position today where we felt we can introduce one or two, and by and large they did fine. I was quite pleased with them. It's just the timing, how you feel you can bring guys in. But they're training very hard with us in Bekan. They're subject to serious A versus B. It's not like we're taking chances or anything like that, but it was good to see.” 

Another decision that was not by chance was the deployment of Jack Carney at full-forward, who responded with three points from play.

“Just trying something different. We had looked at that some months ago but Jack had got a niggle, took him out for about two months and we just had to then get on without him.

“We had a good look at that in training back in January so we knew he could offer something.” 

Aidan O’Shea was a comfortable pick for man of the match. As well as scoring 1-2, he produced some big moments further down the field, including a catch from Colm Reape’s final kickout to ensure Mayo had possession as Sligo chased the goal to take the match to extra-time.

Whether that deficit should have been is another matter, as a point scored by Niall Murphy inside the arc was waved as a two-pointer.

“That was a vital one definitely. He was great today, gave it a great shot. We played him for the whole 70 plus minutes or whatever was involved in because he's in great shape, he's enjoying his football.

“These are very important down the stretch in the big games when you go to Croke Park.” 

Kevin McStay also paid tribute to Sligo for their performance and believes Tony McEntee’s side will be in the mix for the Tailteann Cup.

“They really gave us loads and credit to them, never backed off and they had a few chances themselves in close to the goal.

“Tony McEntee, Aaron (Kernan), Joe (Keane) involved with them, they were very well set up, they know what they want to do. I thought they gave us plenty of it and fair play to them. They know that they want to really go after [the Tailteann Cup]. Good luck to them.”