O’Mahony plays down significance of ‘pleasing’ victory

GALWAY manager Peter Forde seemed as unfazed by defeat as John O’Mahony was by victory after yesterday’s opening game at Croke Park.

With round two scheduled for Salthill in just over a months’ time, all eyes are clearly fixed five weeks along the horizon and the Mayo manager accepted that yesterday’s game will have little bearing on who emerges on top in Salthill.

“It will have no relevance really,” said O’Mahony. “You could see that the intensity of championship wasn’t there. Maybe it was the hot day, maybe it was the fact that we will be meeting in five weeks’ time.

“We got off to a bad start but snuck it at the end. That is pleasing.”

While disappointed, Forde pointed out that defeat was not the “end of the world” and O’Mahony echoed those sentiments by claiming he would not have worried about the consequences had his side lost.

The upshot for Galway is that they can hibernate between now and the championship while Mayo must divert back to Dublin one more time.

But O’Mahony claims he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“As we all know now, the league is excellent preparation. If we had the choice between running around Beleek next week and being up here for a league final, I think the lads would have chosen to be back here again.”

Another positive was a first senior run-out at Croke Park for the likes of full-back James Kilcullen but O’Mahony qualified the day’s success by pointing to a high error count that would have more serious ramifications in high summer.

Down the corridor, Forde cut a sanguine figure despite the result, the half-eaten apple in his hand apparently giving him as much food for thought as his team’s defeat.

“You’re always disappointed when you lose by a point but we will have to look forward to the championship now. We wanted to win today. There’s no point saying otherwise. We were in a winning position a few times in the second half but we conceded the penalty at a bad time and Mayo went on from there. We have no complaints.”

Mayo’s goals, coming as they did when Galway were holding the whip hand, were the determining factors in deciding the outcome, he said, adding that such a talent was the sign of a good team.

Galway’s consolation is a sense of grievance that should buttress their challenge when the two join battle again.

“It all depends what happens over the next five weeks,” said Forde.

“We lost the Connacht final last year by a point so we’ve now lost the last two matches to Mayo by a point. We have to work hard in order to make the necessary improvements. Hopefully we can have the point advantage the next time we meet.”