O’Connor backing Donaghy after slice of bad luck

Jack O’Connor defended Kieran Donaghy after his misdirected kick allowed Mayo back into yesterday’s Division 1 semi-final.

With three minutes of normal time left, the Kingdom star attempted a long cross-field kick in front of the Kerry goal, only for it to screw off his right boot and into the path of Alan Dillon.

The Mayo forward was brought down by Paul Galvin and Pat Harte drove the penalty past Brendan Kealy.

As much as he didn’t want to make too much of it, O’Connor knows that the big Austin Stacks man will be disappointed with himself.

“That is an understatement now, I would say,” said O’Connor afterwards.

“Look, it was one of those things. He was trying to do the right thing, I suppose.

“He miscued it a bit. It was like a slice in golf, he did not mean it to go like that. It was one of those things.”

Mayo supporters have been on a rollercoaster of emotions over the past four weeks but manager James Horan believes there was a massive overreaction to their mid-league dip last month.

Following back-to-back defeats to Donegal and Cork, the league finalists looked to be facing a battle against relegation before a home win over Dublin put them in the running for a semi-final spot. Horan believes the reaction to their seven-point loss to Donegal was over the top.

Asked about Mayo’s reversal of fortune, he said: “That’s football I suppose. After our Donegal performance, some people did maybe jump off the deep end a little bit.

“After our performances against Cork and Dublin, I knew we were on the right track. Even though, we lost against Cork, the performance was pretty good.”

O’Connor maintained it was mission accomplished for Kerry in Division 1 despite the defeat.

“I suppose that was our main objective going into the league, to find a few players who would be competitive later on and strengthen our hand going into the championship.

“We used an awful lot of players again today. We brought on six or seven between the two games and, of course, it has been a great league in that respect.

“Having said that, we would have liked to have closed out the game today and got another game, but the way it worked out we got a game and a half today, which was okay.”

Horan was understandably impressed with the manner in which his team fought back twice.

“We kept at it and tried to stick to our gameplan and if stuff didn’t work we tried to change it,” he said. “We eventually got there.

“We were lucky in the end maybe to get one or two of the goals but we were probably unlucky not to get a penalty or two along the way as well.

“All in all, we are delighted at sneaking it in the end.

“Any time you come to Croke Park and win games it builds confidence.”

Horan was bristly when asked about the extent of Aidan O’Shea’s injury, the midfielder missing the game with a groin problem.

“The medical team are looking after it. We’re not sure how long it is yet, a couple of weeks, hopefully. The medical team are on top of it.”