O’Shea: It was squeaky bum time, but we dug deep

There’s not so much excitement — they don’t have enough left in them for such an energetic emotion.

Instead, the air is thick and heavy with relief and as the Mayo players file out of the dressing room, they’ve been drained to the point that you could mistake them for a losing group. Beside the bus, Aidan O’Shea is cornered. “It was squeaky bum time,” is his assessment. It covers all their assessments and even though this is new to him, he plays it like an old hand.

“Everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. We dug deep and dug out the result though. When we went 10 points up I was thinking about McHale Park in March, and maybe we might go a bit further.

“I came in at half-time though and I thought we were up by three points and Andy (Moran) came in and said we were up by six and I couldn’t believe it. ‘What? I don’t think so,’ I told him. I wasn’t even paying attention but then we started to leak. There were a lot of factors with lads pushed around the place but they were bound to have a purple patch and we leaked a lot.”

Further down the tunnel Barry Moran is taking his share of the blame for the water that came on board. “We were very sloppy in the second half and there are a few things we aren’t happy with. It’s up to us to work hard and keep our heads down. They got a run in the middle, I’ve to put my hand up there and say for 10 minutes I was asleep. But I can’t remember a game this year where we were that bad with injuries but it’s down to the way we play, and the way they play. They like to move the ball and run, run, run. That takes its toll on you.”

Indeed, even Michael Conroy whose been here and done this semi-final stuff before in 2004 and 2006 seems shattered. “You can’t win it unless you’re in it and we’ll give it a rattle. Everyone tries to get off to a good start, it’s about keeping it going but we let Dublin back into it big time. It’s a big issue we’ll have to look at for the final.

“We started well in midfield and tried to get the ball in there quick and that was the start of it. We had no fear of them and why would we? We were in a good place, they were champions and it’s very hard to win it back-to-back. We’d nothing to lose and gave it a rattle. We got over the line but that second half may not be good enough against Donegal and it’s no good knocking out champions unless you win it yourself. But there is something a small bit different to other finals I’ve been involved with. There’s something different about this group. Will it be good enough? We’ll see.”

Finally they board the bus, but they know that this is only part of the journey and they know what’s in the way of the destination. “We didn’t really highlight it but in the back of everyone’s head, there are injuries and we knew there were guys who wanted to step up and do it,” says Cillian O’Connor. “And we’ll need everyone for the final. We all know they are a fantastic team and it’s up to us to do what no one else has done and stop that system and stop them.”