‘It’s all about days like this’

Twenty years after helping Castlebar Mitchels to their last Mayo SFC title as a player, Pat Holmes returned as manager to lead them back to the promised land.

The former All Star defender was understandably delighted after his team bounced back after coming up short in the final against Ballintubber in 2011. However, he also admitted nothing beat winning that county medal as a player with Mitchels back in 1993.

“I’m delighted. You get involved in management for days like this, and it’s very satisfying,” he said.

“I’m really thrilled for the lads, they’re a great bunch and you couldn’t work with better guys than Shane Conway, Alan Nolan and Jimmy Killeen in the management team. But nothing beats playing. The real satisfaction has always been in playing, and we can’t play anymore, so this is the next best thing. ”

The former Mayo senior boss, who was joint manager of the county U21 footballers when they beat Cork in the 2006 All-Ireland final, is well known for being a shrewd operator on the sideline. His decision to start Tom King, who lined out with Mervue Utd against Longford Town in a League of Ireland First Division play-off on Friday, proved a masterstroke.

King scored four points on his way to putting in a man of the match display.

“We were conscious Tom was playing with Mervue on Friday night and we didn’t know if he was going to come through unscathed. So we picked a team during the week without him and the view was that if he came through on Friday night we could consider him. Thankfully, it all worked out.”