McStay pleased by Mayo’s fight to the finish

It was interesting – and probably understandable – that Kevin McStay used his programme notes to assure Mayo supporters last Sunday that players and management alike are “well-briefed on all aspects” of the new rules and have shared “observations and experiences” with the Football Rules Committee.

The manager had drawn some unwanted attention, locally but particularly from RTÉ’s League Sunday pundits, after Mayo’s Round 2 defeat at home to Galway, for his interpretation of the 3v3 rule, where teams must always keep at least three outfield players in each half of the pitch.

On Sunday, his Mayo side conceded just one free (a marked improvement), and Tyrone two, for that particular breach. But that’s not to say they’re not still without homework, nor the match officials for the matter, judging by last Sunday at least.

“There’s nothing about the rules that are second nature. Like, we've all been reared doing things a certain way, for 40 years maybe,” Kevin McStay expanded after Mayo’s hard-fought 0-12 to 0-10 win against the Red Hands. That veiled plea for leniency would probably have been a harder sell had Mayo not just picked up their first points of the 2025 campaign.

Referee Barry Cassidy had stopped play at one stage of the first-half to consult with linesman Barry Judge after Mayo’s management correctly (despite Tyrone’s objections) instructed the double-checking Eoghan McLaughlin that he was okay to cross the halfway line. Being reduced to fourteen players because of a black card to Conor Reid, that now entitled Mayo to keep just two players in the defensive half.

And then there was Matthew Ruane, penalised by Cassidy for taking a solo and go after winning a mark in the middle of the pitch. It’s an option only available to the player in the event of a foul. Strangely, a Tyrone player seemed to commit the same offence in the second-half but escaped censure.

McStay agreed there was confusion “on all sides”.

“In a very simple way, there was, yeah.

“There’s going to be a bit of confusion around them. I think as we go through the league, things will be tidied up. I believe after round five, they're going to sit down and make their decisions, and then we'll all have a rule book and we'll all know exactly what's on the menu for the summer.

“But these rules are well-intentioned, they're working pretty well,” the Mayo manager added.

As for the result itself, Kevin McStay felt Mayo deserved their win. They had taken the lead on three occasions in the first-half yet trailed by one point at half-time, the 0-5 to 0-4 scoreline indicating a cagey affair that not only was littered with errors but largely devoid of any great attacking ambition at either end.

The visitors still led 0-9 to 0-7 at the three-quarter stage but Mayo, who gained a big impact from substitutes Ryan O’Donoghue and Fergal Boland in particular, scored five of the last six points to ease some of the pressure that had been building following back-to-back defeats against Dublin and Galway.

“It’s round three of the league. The pressure of a result, that’s not something we're talking about down in the dressing-room. We're talking about the game on its merits,” insisted McStay afterwards.

“Every National League game is a building block towards the summer. We got three lads back today, Aidan (O’Shea), Jordan (Flynn) and Jack Coyne. And Eoin O’Donoghue got a great look in the corner and a few other lads that we've been looking at did really, really well. So that's all positive. But the result was needed today, results help the morale of everything we're doing.

“I think it was deserved. I would say that I suppose. We worked very, very hard in terms of the effort, massive, and I’m delighted with that.

“Just right to the very end, a few critical balls the last four or five minutes. One kick-out I remember in particular, we really needed that kick-out and we went after it and got it, so very pleased, very pleased with the reaction over the last fortnight.

“Some of our numbers were very, very good the last two weeks. That's overlooked sometimes. Just finishing, and areas like that we tried to tidy up. We're a work in progress. It's two points that we went after and two points that we're delighted to get. The manner in which we got them was very pleasing.” 

Ryan O’Donoghue and Fergal Boland, who played in Mayo’s opening two games, had been named to start against Tyrone on Sunday as well, only to see their places go to Cian McHale (Moy Davitts) and Darren McHale (Knockmore) instead. Both were sprung however, O’Donoghue at half-time and Boland after 46-minutes, and between them scored half of Mayo’s second-half tally – but not before contributing to a growing wides tally that had threatened to consign Mayo to back-to-back home defeats. But Kevin McStay said he had faith in his team to come good in the end.

“I had a sense that we were going to be in this right to the end, that we weren't going to walk away from it. Of course, like, you know, there were some very clunky efforts.

“What's very interesting, if you look at Darren McHale, Fergie Boland, they took responsibility. It didn't work out for them, but they were the ones that were kicking the points that put the conclusion to the game (Darren McHale didn’t score but won a converted free).

“Like, they never walked away from it. That's very, very important to me now, that we back the fellas. If they make mistakes, you have to keep after it and keep after it and try and turn it around and see can their confidence grow out of that and be the players we think that they can be.” 

Sunday’s game marked a return to action for both Aidan O’Shea and Jack Coyne, who like Ryan O’Donoghue and Fergal Boland, also appeared as second-half substitutes, while Kevin McStay provided positive news on their fellow mainstays Paddy Durcan, Tommy Conroy and Diarmuid O’Connor, all of whom he said Mayo supporters can certainly expect to see very soon in league action.

“That's going to be a big boost for us as well, just to have that quality of people. We have them around the dressing-room but to have them out in the field and in among us, that's really, really positive for Mayo.” 

He added: “Of more importance is these guys that we've been trying by necessity perhaps in some instances. They've been really doing well. They've been making big efforts. Not perfection, but big efforts for the minutes they're getting. So, we're going in the right direction.” 

Mayo have a six-day turnaround before travelling to the home of All-Ireland SFC champions Armagh (Saturday at 5pm) who have also just one win against Tyrone to boast after three rounds. Last Sunday, they had Aidan Forker red carded in a heavy 0-21 to 1-10 defeat away to Donegal.