Winning run goes on but plenty to work on for Mayo hurlers

Ray Larkin was delighted to see Mayo continue their winning run in the National League over a resolute Cavan side in Castlebar last Sunday.

Cavan got to within a point of Mayo two minutes into the second half after a goal from Nicholas Kenny but Liam Lavin’s goal on 48 minutes effectively killed the game from there.

“They got a goal probably against a run of play,” said the Mayo joint-manager. “I think in one way it kind of pushed us on from that. We got the next couple of scores after that, then Liam Lavin got a nice goal. We seemed to be in control of the game a good bit but didn't really kind of push away early on.” 

“Cavan are a big, strong, physical team and we were hoping not to get into rucks and some of the scores they got came from our own mistakes but we were happy enough to get the two points again.” 

Mayo led by five points at half-time but it could have been much more were it not for another high wide count. They encountered similar issues in their opening game against Armagh and while rectified in the win over Monaghan, Mayo were guilty of some poor shooting again.

“It was poor,” admitted Larkin. “It's the same with the Armagh game as well but we thought we'd sorted it out the last day against Monaghan, but we had six wides from play and we had two or three frees missed as well. It’s just something to work on the next day and you know, we were probably in control of the game but just didn't put them away.

When asked whether the high wide count again was a concern, Larkin offered: “No. Some of the wides we got were probably in front of the goal and they should have got them over. I think they had more time than they thought. We probably need to tell them to slow down the striking and they have more time in the ball than they think they have.” 

Mayo were more clinical second half as Daniel Huane, Liam Lavin and Adrian and Cormac Philips all contributed greatly. With this weekend off, Mayo now turn attention to securing a league final place.

“They got some great scores that time. Eoin Delaney got great points in the second half. Joe Burke, when he came on, he ran at them, he did well.

“You can't beat winning. The momentum is there and the lads are chomping at the bit to get on the team. It's a hard team to pick at the moment. We’ve this weekend off so we’ll train hard this week and we'll start preparing now for the following week.”