Gooch relishes his ‘killer blow’

GREEN or red, the colour doesn’t matter. Colm Cooper just loves the sight of those Mayo jerseys.

The Gooch has faced the Connacht side in championship football four times now. He’s met them in the last eight, the last four and twice in the final itself and each time he has managed to burn them for a goal and a point or two — or five.

Yesterday was his best return yet. The obligatory green flag and seven points to top it off, three of them from play. Not a bad day’s work. In fact, after what has been a less than stellar campaign by his vaulted standards, this was his best day at the office all summer.

“It took a while to come,” he said afterwards.

“I felt good all summer but I just haven’t been razor sharp and things came back a little bit there [against Mayo]. Croke Park can bring it out in you sometimes, too. It took a while to settle in the first 10 or 15 minutes too, so I will have to look at that.”

The goal encapsulated Cooper at his best. Mayo keeper Robert Hennelly was flanked by two of his defenders when he rose for a dropping ball along with the man from Dr Crokes but it was the Kerry forward who fell to earth with the O’Neills in his hands.

At that distance out, the leather might well have been a smoking grenade. His ambitions were limited to a quick flick over the ground but then he surveyed a scene where all but his marker had faded away to cover other threats — and instinct took over.

“It was probably the killer blow for them. They had just got the goal and the crowd were getting behind them a little bit and to concede a goal like that was a sucker punch for them. I was looking for a point but things opened up and I put the head down.”

Only moments earlier Cillian O’Connor had rattled Brendan Kealy’s rigging and there were still 16 minutes to see out before David Coldrick blew the last whistle but Gooch’s goal was the full stop at the end of the day’s business.

Cooper added: “The scoreline probably doesn’t reflect the game as a whole but we’re delighted. If we had come out of here with a one-point win we would have been delighted to get through it. Fellas played well in areas but we know we have a lot to improve on.”

That they do. Dublin or Donegal will hardly allow them such time to find their feet next month.

Cooper agreed Kerry will need to be sharper. He said: “It just took us a while to settle but you are going to get that on big days and we will go back to the drawing board and see if we can iron that out a little bit.”