Plenty for Mayo to work on ahead of Roscommon tie
Mayo’s Charlie Fallon is tackled by Leitrim’s Harry Newcombe during the Electric Ireland Connacht MFC Round 1 encounter at Carrick-on-Shannon last Friday evening. Picture: David Farrell Photography
One must wonder what was going through the mind of Mayo minor manager Diarmuid Byrne as the game was deep in additional time.
What was once an eleven-point lead early in the first half was reduced to three after an inspired comeback by Leitrim. That it was Mayo’s first game of the championship having had a bye a week previously may have led to some early jitters, but the Green and Red came through what was, in the end, a tough outing.
“It wasn't the way I suppose we thought it was going to pan out but I suppose it was our first day out”, said Byrne. “[It’s] Leitrim's second day out so I suppose there was a lot of nerves and anxiety amongst our guys. I suppose we did get off to a good start but maybe a little bit of complacency probably crept in.
“But Leitrim are a good side, and they showed it there in patches. There's a lot for us to take away from today's game.”
The Mayo minor manager was impressed with the impact off the bench through the likes of Nathan Cooney and Aaron O’Dea, who helped halt the momentum of Leitrim midway through the second half, but added that there was plenty to work on ahead of their game against Roscommon next Friday, who defeated Galway last week are the only side to win their opening two games.
“We just felt we needed a little bit of energy, you know. Not everybody can have a five-star display on any given day, so for guys who are kind of struggling a little bit, we thought we'd bring fresh legs in and thankfully in the end it had a positive impact for us.
“It was lot of head scratching to be honest [at half-time]. We got out of the blocks fairly sharpish. We allowed Leitrim to creep back into the game by giving the ball up too softly in my eyes.
“We had a talk at half-time just to reset things and it was a bit of a fight in the second half but I felt we dug in when we needed to dug in. But we've a lot to learn and we'll go away and take those learnings for next week.
“Winning with a lot to work on is probably a good way to be but this is their first game at this level so there's a lot of experience garnered from tonight's match and we hope that'll stand to them next weekend.”
One player’s involvement who is in doubt for the encounter against the Rossies is Noah Donnelly, who came off the field late on after a heavy collision.
“It actually happened in front of me. The pitch is actually in great condition but it's actually quite greasy on top and he just slipped and got into contact. I don't know what the extent of the injury is, but we'll assess that later on and hopefully, fingers crossed, everybody's okay,” concluded Byrne.
