Job done for O’Shea and Mayo

Substituted in the second half, Aidan O’Shea was among the Mayo players sent for training runs in the corner of McGovern Park after Saturday’s Connacht championship opener.

With a long walk from there to the dressing rooms, he quickly became a target for autograph and selfie requests from Mayo and London children alike.

He might still be there were it not for very strict stewards using loudspeakers to clear fans and players alike from the pitch.

“Yeah I don’t see them getting off the pitch as quickly in MacHale Park, we could bring them (stewards) over for some home games,” O’Shea joked.

As a veteran of 2011, when London nearly shocked Mayo, O’Shea was very content with a straightforward win and impressed too by the developments at McGovern Park since Mayo’s last visit in 2016.

“The scoreline is a little more forgiving than it was 15 years ago and in fairness the facilities here are unbelievable compared to the last time we were here, the stand and the pitch as well, unbelievable amount of work put in here to McGovern Park so fair play to everyone involved because the setup is unreal,” he said.

Despite – or perhaps because of – playing with the wind in the first half, Mayo took time to settle but never looked a side in danger of getting concerned.

“We were a bit giddy in the first half, we probably wanted to get out and get a bit of a score up early doors and probably forced a few things both in possession and taking shots. I think after maybe 15 minutes we grinded it down a little bit and started getting better shots off, a few of the boys hit a few twos over, got the scoreboard up nice and handy at half-time,” he said.

Mayo led 0-17 to 0-6 at half-time but a Michael O’Reilly goal a minute after half-time had the potential to ignite London, but instead it was a cue for Mayo to take control, scoring 12 of the next 15 points.

“They probably got a perfect start to the second half with a goal, thinking maybe they could build on that but I think the way we got over the halfway line with 11 v 11, made sure we killed the ball every time we went up and got scores was an impressive enough response for us. You can’t really win on days like today, you’ve just got to get the result and get on to the next day and that’s obviously a big one now against Roscommon.” 

O’Shea had a sniff of a goal in the first half but was pulled back for steps by referee Paddy Neilan. It looked borderline, and the Breaffy man laughed when reminded of it.

“Jesus I don’t know, I see a lot more players taking a lot more steps than I do. Disappointing with that one but these things happen. Hopefully the next day if I want to go around the keeper, they won’t be calling me for steps,” he quipped.