Éamonn Fitzmaurice lauds players for another stirring second-half show

Éamonn Fitzmaurice complimented his players for retrieving a game that had been threatening to slip away from them in the first-half.

For the second week running, Kerry fashioned a stirring second-half display, on this occasion outscoring Mayo by six points.

“The goal we got before half-time kept us in it,” said Fitzmaurice of Johnny Buckley’s strike. “Mayo were threatening to go away from us. We were inaccurate in possession. We worked very hard when we didn’t have the ball but we weren’t accurate enough when we had the ball. In fairness, the second-half was a good bit better. There was a strong breeze in the first- half and we struggled to play against it. It seemed to die down as the second-half went on. You have to give credit to the backs. The whole team worked hard when we didn’t have the ball in the first-half. We just need to build on that.”

Fitzmaurice took great satisfaction from how his players dealt with the loss of Kieran Donaghy to a second yellow card. “The second one was a definite yellow. The first one was on the harsh side but when you are on a card you have to be careful. But it was unfortunate we lost him but again it was good that the lads stood up and reacted well to being down to 14 men.”

Fitzmaurice added: “It wasn’t like we were chasing the game, we got a couple of scores on the break as well, which meant the gap was just big enough all the time.” Mayo’s Stephen Rochford didn’t need to be told the wide count against Mayo – 13 to Kerry’s four – nor the missed goal chances in the first-half. “We created two chances ourselves, Aidan (O’Shea) and Jason Doherty’s efforts spring to mind, and we would have been good value for a one-point lead at half-time.

“The concession of the two goals allowed Kerry to dictate the terms going into that final quarter and the four/five point margin was always going to allow them to hit on the break and they did quite well with their latter scores.”

Mayo now face a battle to avoid relegation. “We were probably in the championship zone in the manner in which we looked to approach today as well,” said Rochford. “For 35 minutes, we were dictating a lot of it but simple mistakes, individual mistakes, came back to bite us. Our lack of conversion just left us in a position where we were fighting a tide in Kerry.”