Mayo left 'absolutely sick' after gut-wrenching final defeat

There was devastation in the Mayo dressing room as a late Donegal fightback saw Mayo beaten in the Nicky Rackard Cup Final in Croke Park last Sunday.

Mayo led for most of the final but buoyed by the strength in depth on the bench, Donegal powered on in the last 15 minutes and hit three-second half goals to end Mayo’s hopes of a league and championship double.

“We're gutted in there, very subdued dressing room, “said Mayo joint-manager Brian Finn. “Played well in the first half, and thought we did well in the first 10, 15 minutes of the second half. Two or three little mistakes cost us two goals and we just let it slip after that. We didn't get control of the game again, panicked a bit on the ball, snatched a few shots and it just slipped away.

Finn added: “The subs had a big impact, yeah, and we didn't get that today. Each of their lads that came on made a difference when they came on, just changed the dynamics a little bit. You could see our legs going the last 10 minutes, lads were getting tired as well. Heat was probably a factor. But very proud of the lads, they put in a great effort as they have done all year. We knew they wouldn't leave it short that way. We just didn't have enough today.” Mayo can take much heart from the performance, which was their best of the season up to the hour mark and Finn said they will push on next year.

“ I thought the lads were very good. You couldn't fault them two men. Fantastic effort. Just came up short on the day. Again, there’s huge learnings from it.

“Reflecting on the full year, we had a good year. But when you get to the final, you want to win it. It's a tough one, but we'll build and move on again.” His colleague Ray Larkin admitted that Donegal had the edge physically in the second half, but echoed Finn’s remarks on the year overall.

“We were four up at half time, came out and got the next score. We hurled really well there for 60 minutes of the game and just the last 10 minutes you could see the legs were gone.

“The lads gave it everything and that's what the impact of the three subs of Donegal at half-time were crucial in the winning as goals win game. We’re disappointed but I suppose we would have taken it at the start of the year to say we were here.

“They were phenomenal. Croke Park is so big there and they cover some ground. We knew we had to do that to beat Donegal but, I suppose 10 minutes is a lot in hurling.

They got two good goals. The first one was just a deflection. They got the goals at the right times and we just had no response.

“We’ll review back and see where we are. All the good stuff we've done, like winning the league and getting to a final here. At the start, we were rebuilding with a couple of retirees and, like we said before, we were no outside lads, so we were in a kind of changeover state. We'd have been very happy with this at the start of the year.

Midfielder Daniel Huane couldn’t hide the hurt he and his teammates felt at the end.

“Absolutely sickening. It's the worst way you could possibly lose the game, obviously. Goals, in such an important time of the game. Like they said, we played well for most of the game but that crunch time in the last couple of minutes, they just caught us.

“Everyone's absolutely sick. We've all given it so much for the last couple of months so to come that close and lose it like that.

“At least we won the league. A lot of new lads stepped up this year as well, which is a big plus. We had no outside players as well so to be able to put on a display like that. It’s just unfortunate the way it ended.”