Mayo’s big rivalry brings the best out in both teams

The Westport captain said her team decided they would “go down swinging” in the second-half of their county final victory against Knockmore and play with a sense of fearlessness after a poor showing in the opening half.

Knockmore led by seven points at the break against a lacklustre Westport side. Lara Sweeney was shooting the lights out and Amy O’Connor’s goal had given the Saffron and Blue a huge boost.

The Coveys needed a shot in the arm and whatever was said at half-time clearly paid off. They looked a different outfit after the interval and came from behind, thanks in large part to Aoife Staunton’s four points and a goal assist for half-time substitute Christina MacEvilly, which helped capture their second senior title in-a-row.

Janette O’Malley told the Western People at full-time that she was still in disbelief at how her team played in the second-half following their ineffectual start.

“We did so much preparation for this game and we were so disappointed with our first-half performance. We had stood off Knockmore a bit too much and given them too much room,” said O’Malley.

“At half-time, we decided that if we were going to come down here to Castlebar today, we were going to go down swinging and thankfully we came out the right side of it.” O’Malley said she was proud to captain her team.

“We just decided we had nothing to lose and we may as well throw the shackles off and go for it. Then things started to go right for us, we picked up a few scores and the girls really stood up to the plate.

“We have leaders all over the pitch and when we need people to stand up, they always do. We had incredible performances all around, from Roisin Scott in goal to Laura Moran at corner-forward. It was incredible stuff and all the girls who came on from the bench put in such a huge performance for us as well.” 

Westport manager Pop Geraghty said his side’s strength in depth was a key difference maker in this. Rebecca O’Malley and Christina MacEvilly were introduced at half-time, with Sherin El Massry brought on just before the break, and the trio were among the players who helped Westport get a hold of the game.

“We have said all year that the panel is our biggest strength and thankfully the girls who came in did an outstanding job,” said Pop.

“We weren’t really doing what we were good at in the first-half. We were making some decisions that weren’t right and we seemed a bit nervous for some reason.

“We spoke about it at half-time and we knew if we went back to our own game, we had 60 or 65 minutes of an effort in us and knew we could work hard again.” 

Geraghty praised their opponents and said Knockmore and Westport, who contested a third county final in-a-row, push one another on to get better.

“Knockmore were the standard setters when I took over. They’re excellently coached, they have great people involved behind the scenes. Credit to them, it was a great spectacle for ladies sport today.

“It was some game. Huge credit to Knockmore, we knew they’d come at us and they came. They were really strong and had us at sizes and sevens in the first-half and we had to really just reset at half-time,” he said.

He reserved praise for his backroom team, who he said have made his role as manager much easier and have helped to bring this team on.

“I’m so lucky to have the management team around me, we have such a great team and it’s so easy when you have people like that around you, that you can trust and rely on and who care about the girls.”