Midfield worries for Mayo yet all is not lost

Another crushing loss after a chaotic finale. We're becoming accustomed to those sorts of things. Mayo didn't play badly in Omagh. It was two evenly matched teams going at it in a game decided by small margins. Some poor game management and poor goal finishing cost Mayo. All is not lost yet though and there's still hope.

As the last match of the weekend and after a crazy set of results around the country, most of this game felt like it was after the Lord Mayor’s Show. It was a low-energy slow burner for the first 40 minutes or so. For that period, it was tight and tense, with few goal chances and no two-pointers. A world away from Clones two weeks previously. It burst to life in the last quarter and became a really entertaining affair with a fair dollop of madness on show. Mayo have become known as the 'Kings of Chaos' but, in their defence, under the new rules every single match in this year’s championship seems to be manic right up to the wire. We should be thankful that it is never dull.

We should also be grateful that Mayo's defence seems to have really tightened up. Tyrone had only one gilt-edged goal opportunity all game. It was clear there had been a shift in Mayo's defensive shape and philosophy. It looked to me like Mayo sat deeper. This clogged up the channels so that the strike runners couldn't maraud at will through our backline. It also protected our full-back line from long, direct early ball inside that would leave them exposed in one-on-one situations. Unlike Monaghan, Tyrone aren't big two-point kickers so Mayo cut their cloth accordingly. Sitting that bit deeper, however, afforded Tyrone more point-scoring opportunities around the small arc, which they converted with ease on a lot of occasions.

While Tyrone didn't open us up too often, Mayo will rue our wastefulness in front of goal at the other end. Paul Towey, Jordan Flynn and Sam Callinan all spurned golden chances to raise a green flag. In a tight game, they were big misses. With the benefit of hindsight, Callinan's choice to handpass over the bar when Tommy Conroy was as free as a bird at the back post was a poor decision. Had Mayo won the game, taking the point would have been an inspired choice. With Mayo losing, it'll haunt him. Fine margins. Big calls. That's top-level sport.

The one goal Mayo got was a beauty. Mayo's best player all day, Darragh Beirne, slotted it with aplomb. He has serious maturity and poise for one so young. He is also physically well developed and, for a 19-year-old, never looks out of place in the size stakes at senior football.

Paul Towey did well to pop the handpass to him when it seemed like his legs were failing him. Towey is a good footballer and just needs a break at senior level. I have no doubt he would have slotted a lot of those chances he got on Sunday with his eyes closed had he been playing in the green of his club, Charlestown. It's not a technical or physical thing that has stopped him catching fire at senior inter-county level yet. I'm just not sure the belief is fully there.

It reminds me a bit of Aiden Orme's time with Mayo. Another guy who shot the lights out at club level but just didn't fully back himself in the green and red. There are even parallels with my own Mayo senior career. Some misses I had for Mayo still spook me as I know I would never have missed the same chances in a million years with my club. It takes a special type of beast to become a top-level inter-county senior forward.

Darren McCurry is exactly that. Not for the first time, he ran Mayo's defence ragged. To get Man of the Match having only been introduced 10 minutes into the second-half says it all. He has always had one of the sweetest left boots in Ireland but his kicking on his weaker right foot from the right wing on Sunday was jaw-dropping. Dazzler dazzled and Mayo hadn't a defender to match him.

Apart from Beirne, Mayo had some solid performers but not too many other eight-out-of-ten displays. Eoin McGreal can be happy with his championship debut and seems to have good pace, which will give him a good chance at this level. His clubmate Enda Hession looked great going forward and kicked some lovely points. David McBrien had a good tussle with the evergreen Mattie Donnelly. Tommy Conroy looked his best for a while when he came on and really stretched Tyrone's defence, while Kobe kicked his customary classy two-pointer.

Jack Livingstone also made another incredible one-on-one stop from the ever-threatening Ronan Cassidy early in the second-half. Shot-stopping seems to be a real strength of his. His kick-outs weren't bad either and he had a pretty good success rate in getting his short ones away.

The longer ones were a problem though as Tyrone's behemoths ruled the roost in midfield. Conn Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy are massive men and we just couldn't compete with them aerially or physically. They are an established midfield pairing who have been on the road together for a while now and, like McCurry, caused us serious problems in the 2021 All-Ireland final and again on Sunday. Mayo's lack of a recognised, settled midfield is a worry. It is the most important line on the field, provides much of the leadership for the group and sets the tone for the whole team. With Niall Morgan supplying them, Kennedy and Kilpatrick did just that.

Morgan's winning kick at the end from an acute angle was magnificent. He is a maverick and not immune from making the odd boo-boo but he always provides great leadership for Tyrone. Aidan O'Shea was unlucky to be pinged for the free as Michael McKernan looked for it and made the most of the tackle, but it was cute play by the Coalisland man and cool execution by Morgan.

With Armagh and Westmeath losing at the weekend, every team remaining in the championship has now suffered at least one defeat. With such erratic, unpredictable results and form lines, I'm not sure there is any team to overly fear going forward. No team is unbeatable. Most teams are highly flawed. It makes for a great championship.

The biggest problem with the Omagh defeat is that Mayo will have to play three weekends in a row to progress to an All-Ireland semi-final. That is no easy task but should we be surprised? When did Mayo ever take the easy route?

One more thing… 

Were Mayo or Donegal to win this year’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, they would be the first team ever to do so after losing two matches along the way.