Horan: We are the authors of our own downfall
James Horan put as much emphasis on Mayo’s poor kick-passing as he did their malfunctioning restart when attempting to assess how they had suffered a 10-point loss in Fitzgerald Stadium yesterday.
Losing nine of their 17 first-half restarts didn’t give the Allianz League champions much of a platform to work with, but, as Horan noted, they didn’t do themselves any favours with the amount of ball which they kicked away, either.
“We struggled in the middle of the field. David Moran caught a lot of ball in the first-half and then the ball that we did get, we kicked away a huge percentage of it,” said the Mayo manager.
“Our kick-passing was quite poor right throughout the game so when you’re not winning many balls in the middle of the field and anything you do get, you’re kicking it away, you’re going to struggle.
“We put ourselves and our full-back line under immense pressure, particularly in the first-half.”
Horan said it had been their intention to press the Kerry kick-out, but failure to do so encapsulated Mayo’s overall performance where they were that “half-yard” off Kerry in every department.
“We went zonal for a while, we followed them in for a while, we tried to do different things but, as I said, we were just off, that half-yard off.
“We did a lot better in the second-half but yeah, they got their kickouts away well. We were comprehensively beaten. Kerry were very good today.
“We were a little bit off and they ran out comfortable winners, but we have to move on straight away, there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
That this was Mayo’s fourth game in as many weekends was not a contributory factor in their below bar showing, the manager insisted.
Although given the opportunity, he would not cite fatigue as an excuse.
“I don’t think that was the reason. You don’t know for sure, it could be lots of reasons. It could be the trip down. But we were reactive in what we did.
I think people realise there’s still a lot to play for. That’s the only way to look at it. We’re a little bit down in the dumps after our performance but we’ll move on quickly.
"We have a long bus journey now to reflect and hopefully, we’ll be fine by the time we get off the bus.”
Horan didn’t need telling that Sunday’s game against Meath has taken on a season-defining status. Lose and their year is done.
“You have to try and win every game but obviously, it’s a big weekend for us so we’ll prepare as well as we can.”
With regard to those on their lengthy injury list, Horan will wait until the second half of this week before making a call on their involvement in that Meath tie.
“If fellas are doing well and they train well on Wednesday night, we’ll give them a chance.
"Some guys, the heat got to them out there so we’ll see what’s happening on Wednesday or Thursday night.”
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