O'Mahony keen to continue with Mayo

Although his side endured a deflating finish to their Championship campaign at Croke Park yesterday afternoon, Mayo manger John O'Mahony is remaining upbeat about the county's footballing future.

Having started the All-Ireland quarter-final impressively and moved 1-12 to 1-8 ahead thanks to an Aidan O'Shea goal, the Connacht champions looked to be getting the better of opponents Meath.

However, the Royals rallied superbly over the closing 20 minutes, scoring a goal from a Cian Ward penalty and adding seven points to run out as 2-15 to 1-15 winners and set up a semi-final clash with Kerry.

It was Mayo's third defeat in six quarter-final outings since 2002 and saw them falter badly after impressive Connacht Championship wins over Roscommon and Galway.

Drawing on the positives, O'Mahony pointed to the youth in his squad - including teenage goalscorer O'Shea - in giving Mayo definite hope for the future.

"I think that people need to realise how many young players are in this Mayo team," he said.

"A lot of them grew up out there (today) and I'm sure they'll learn from that in the future."

Asked about whether he will remain on as manager for a fourth year, the busy Fine Gael politician hinted that he would like to continue the work which has yielded a single Connacht SFC title and plenty of promise.

"What we agreed in the dressing room there is that all of the players and management will come together in a few weeks' time when everything settles," said O'Mahony, who was appointed on a three-year term in November 2006.

"The players certainly need that space and I suppose we (the management) do as well.

"Certainly, on an initial look at it, I'd feel positive about having a contribution to make. Provided everyone is happy, I've no problem.

"The likelihood is that I would probably be involved. I would like to be involved, but that's for another day and everyone has to have their thoughts on that."

There was two major talking points from yesterday's game which went rather cruelly against Mayo.

First, there was the incident where Meath goalkeeper Paddy O'Rourke looked to have carried the ball back over his goal-line after gathering a high, dropping shot.

Then in the lead-up to Meath's penalty award, a sideline ball was signalled by the linesman for Meath when it should, as confirmed by television replays, have been given as a Mayo ball.

"There were a few of those tight decisions," added O'Mahony.

"The sideline decision before the penalty and maybe a shot that Alan Dillon took that could have been behind the line.

"I haven't had time to see the replays, but what we have to do is deal in realities and the reality is we're out of the Championship."