Underdogs didn’t even had to be at their best to beat us

Rather than re-ignite championship aspirations after their Connacht final defeat, Mayo played like a team just waiting to be put out of their misery, writes Stuart Tynan.

If you had a chance to read sports editor Anthony Hennigan’s article last week in advance of the Cavan game, he rounded off with ‘Sometimes, ‘f***ing pride’ will only get the players so far.’ After last Sunday’s disastrous result and performance, even pride looked in limited supply.

Disastrous may seem like hyperbole but losing to Cavan, a first in the championship for Mayo since 1948, a team who Mayo beat comfortably in the group stage last year, a team who finished mid-table in Division 2 earlier this year in the National League and a team who were missing one of their best forwards in Gearoid McKiernan and only reintroducing talisman Paddy Lynch with 20 minutes to go after a year out with injury, and you should begin to get the picture.

The real worry for Mayo is that Cavan were not playing their absolute best either. The Breffni combination of misfortune and poor wides in the first-half was the only reason Mayo had a three-point lead at half-time – and that was with Mayo playing with a slight breeze.

The misfortune came after Barry Donnelly suffered what looked be a serious injury, by which point Cavan were 0-2 to 0-0 up. It should have been more given that they had three poor wides but in contrast, Mayo had failed to register a shot of any kind, which did not arrive until Ryan O’Donoghue pointed a free on 17 minutes.

Even by that stage, the majority of the 7,387 spectators in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park were growing restless. Mayo were turned over far too easily, with one poor handpass in particular by Dylan Thornton drawing ire while goalkeeper Colm Reape was also on the receiving end as the Knockmore man struggled to get his kickouts away with any degree of speed or accuracy.

It was all too easy for Cavan, but Mayo found themselves level after the visitors breached the three-up rule, and O’Donoghue levelled the game from a two-point free. Mayo had their best period of the game from here and could have built up a bigger lead by the break, but old habits (their ponderous side-to-side method of trying to work scores) crept in.

When Mayo move the ball quicker and with urgency, they can cut through the best defences and a brilliant move involving Jack Carney, O’Donoghue, Darren McHale and Enda Hession did set-up Davitt Neary, but his goal effort was blocked down. Neary’s day did not get any better, as he was sinbinned towards the end of the first-half, but Mayo finished the half stronger thanks to two brilliant Stephen Coen points (one of the few who could hold his head high on Sunday) and one from Matthew Ruane. Half-time came at the wrong time but one would expect Mayo to pull away in the second-half, just like they had a year ago.

That did not happen at all.

Cavan left Mayo reeling when scoring 1-2 within two minutes of the restart and from there, matters did not improve. While Cavan’s forwards zipped around and ran at the Mayo defence at every opportunity, visibly growing in confidence, Mayo’s forward line looked timid in comparison. McHale’s point in the first-half was their only score from play in the full-forward line until Aidan O’Shea found the net deep in the last play of second-half stoppage time. By then, it was all over.

The sideline did no favours either. The first Mayo substitute did not enter until the 55th minute but that first move was to bring in Fenton Kelly, a man more suitable if Mayo were looking to shut a game down than to win one.

Paul Towey created the goal for O’Shea but had little impact otherwise while the decision to bring on Fergal Boland and Frank Irwin on 67 and 69 minutes respectively, the latter having played every league game but only four minutes of championship against Leitrim in the Connacht semi-final, bordered on insulting to both.

The one big positive was the return of captain Paddy Durcan, who received the biggest cheer of the day from Mayo supporters. He immediately got stuck into it with a trio of Cavan players upon his second-half introduction and while he could not inspire any comeback, he surely must start against Tyrone to give Mayo some much needed leadership.

So, what next? Mayo, of course, could be on brand and pull off what would be an upset of their own against Tyrone. And then, depending on how Donegal v Tyrone goes this weekend, as well as Cavan’s home tie against the Ulster champions, Mayo could pull themselves back into contention for a place in, at least, the preliminary quarter-final. But on the evidence of last Sunday, and generally since the National League final against Kerry, not even the most optimistic Mayo supporter could see that happening.

Maybe the players and management know it, too. They’ve got two weeks to prove otherwise.