Mayo star Diarmuid O'Connor comes to defence of Cork U21 goalkeeper Anthony Casey

O’Connor was a handful of days into celebrating Mayo’s capture of the All-Ireland U21 title when news of the online abuse being shipped by Cork goalkeeper Anthony Casey reached him.

Casey picked the ball out of his net five times during the final in Ennis last weekend, but it was the concession of the fourth goal on the back of his own intercepted short kick-out that led to the criticisms. The game was level at the time with just minutes to play.

“In fairness, if you're a keeper and you make one mistake, everyone is down on you. But me playing midfield, I'd say I made four or five mistakes but it didn't matter,” said O’Connor who had bagged Mayo’s first three-pointer. “It's tough, it was just one mistake.