McHale pleased to come through Galway 'dogfight'

Against Meath, the performance was good without getting the result. This time around, the performance was not as good but they got the result.

That was the view of Mayo manager Liam McHale as his side held off a late rally from Galway to pick up their first win and points in Division 1.

The Ballina man admitted he felt ‘sorry’ for Galway and that the hosts deserved a share of the spoils but he was happy to get the result nonetheless, while adding they could have made things much less nervy had they took more of their own chances.

“The mind is funny and I'm not a sports psychologist or anything like that but we played quite well last week against a very good Meath team but we didn't win and the confidence was low during the week and we were working trying to build up the girls,” said McHale “This week now I thought we weren't as good. Obviously that was down to Galway's defending and their aggression in the tackle, but we got the win so the atmosphere would be different in the dressing room, not because we played well but because we won and that's the most important thing.

McHale added: “They obviously deserved a draw, maybe they felt they deserved more but we got the two goals that always give you that bit of breathing space and give you a bit of confidence.

“It could have went any way and (Roisin Leonard) is obviously she's a very good free taker. We were sure she was going to put it over but then you're worried that it falls short and it ends up in the back of the net and then that would be a real killer in this division to have lost two points.

“I think if you're being honest on early reflection, Galway deserved a draw. I think it would have been fair to say because it was a dogfight. We were good at times, we had an awful lot of good chances. A great goal chance at the end but we butchered it and that is disappointing, “You need to score those really high percentage opportunities to win these type of games. This is a tough place to come. Galway were well organised. They're very good defensively and we've struggled to break them down but that's something we'll have to work on as the time goes by.

“But I think the most important thing here today was not the performance really. You're always looking for a good performance but to get two points is important because we have Dublin in Ballina next Sunday, tomorrow week so that's another massive challenge.” A goal in each half by Lisa Cafferky proved the difference on the scoreboard while in defence, Saoirse Lally and Danielle Caldwell stood up when counted. Liam McHale also paid tribute to veteran Fiona McHale, who dropped into the middle when Aoife Geraghty was sinbinned and used her experience to ensure Galway did not do as much damage as they could have.

“Lisa is a finisher and very good player, very experienced player. I thought Fiona did very well when we went down to 14 when Aoife Geraghty got the sin bin. I thought Fiona came out to the middle of the field and did very well and slowed down the game and that 10 minutes without Aoife, know one of our top players in the middle of the field, didn't hurt us on the scoreboard. It might hurt us energy-wise but it didn't hurt us on the scoreboard so that was key to us winning the game.

“Then we took off Fiona midway through the second half because she had two ticks, we were informed that she had two ticks and we didn't want to get another sin bin effect at that stage because that would have really hurt us.

“We all played well. We made a lot of mistakes but we're trying to play the way we practice and obviously we expect that that will come but obviously there's a lot of work to be done.

“Saoirse and Danielle are as tough as you get. There was no danger of them quitting. They are the guys that keep you going when times are hard and you struggle to score. You only have a couple of points up and you're just trying to hang on and get the win. Without those types of players you just don't get these types of wins.”