Horan: We had to grind it out

Mayo manager James Horan was pleased to see his team come through today's All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Tyrone as six-point winners, but knows that a repeat performance is unlikely to be good enough to lift the Sam Maguire Cup next month.

Horan admitted the Connacht champions had to 'grind out' the 1-16 to 0-13 victory at Croke Park, after playing well below-par in the first half and allowing Tyrone to dictate early on.

The Red Hands were unable to make full use of possession and Mayo snapped the deficit back to 0-7 to 0-6 by half-time, before Alan Freeman's 39th-minute penalty spread some much-needed confidence through the westerners' side.

Midfielder Aidan O'Shea went on to deliver another man-of-the-match display and stellar scores from Alan Dillon, Lee Keegan and Freeman, who stepped in for shoulder injury victim Cillian O'Connor, saw Mayo through to their second successive All-Ireland final.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Horan said: "It was very pleasing to win an All-Ireland semi-final, but we didn't play well.

"Certainly in the first half we made every mistake you could possibly make so to figure it out and adjust and to kick on in the second half and take control of the game is very pleasing, yeah.

"We've started well in all our games, but today we were very poor and looked very heavy-legged. We were making very poor decisions, taking the ball into contact and turning it the wrong way and losing hold of it in 50-50 balls.

"We started taking crazy shot decisions and missed a couple of 14-yard frees, we lost our free-taker (O'Connor). There was a lot of stuff that went wrong, but we just kept playing and grinding it out and kept trying to figure it out.

"The last 10 minutes of the first half I thought were very impressive with Lee (Keegan) and Chris (Barrett) coming up and kicking vital scores to bring us within a point at half-time. We just built on that momentum at the start of the second half.

"The first five or six kick-outs of the second half we won them all and got 1-3 or 1-4 I'd say and owned the game from there."

Having retained their Connacht title and dispatched Donegal in the last round, Mayo were favourites to see off Tyrone's challenge and there was a sense that the pressure may have got to them in the opening 35 minutes.

Horan did not think so, insisting: "The warm-up was a bit off, but I genuinely don't think it was that because they have been favourites all year and it hasn't bothered us, so we will just have a look and see and make sure we start right the next time."

Aidan O'Shea, meanwhile, highlighted Mayo's surge in the early stages of the second half as the most important part of the game.

They moved 1-10 to 0-7 in front within 11 minutes of the restart, with Freeman converting a penalty awarded for a foul on Colm Boyle and O'Connor's replacement Enda Varley, Dillon, Freeman and free-taking goalkeeper Robert Hennelly all registering points.

O'Shea told RTÉ's 'The Sunday Game': "Fair play to Tyrone, we knew they'd make it hard on us, especially in the first half.

"We struggled today to be honest but regrouped at the half and we upped the tempo big time at the start of the second half and that was the changing of the game."

O'Shea's more chiselled appearance is evidence of Mayo's improved physicality from last season and they also seem mentally tougher. The acid test will be the final on September 22 against either Dublin or Kerry, and the Breaffy powerhouse is already focused on preparing for that match.

"Look, we'll knuckle down, we've a pool session in the morning and training on Wednesday so we'll get back to work," added O'Shea.

O'Shea's team-mate Cillian O'Connor was taken to the nearby Mater Hospital shortly after damaging his shoulder in the 11th minute of this afternoon's clash.

Horan confirmed that it was the same shoulder that O'Connor injured in a club game in May which had threatened his participation in Mayo's Championship campaign.

"I have to talk to the doc but it didn't look good the way he fell. He is with the medical team now so we need to see how it is, but it certainly didn't look good," explained a concerned Horan.

The Mayo County Board also issued a brief statement which read: "Cillian will be closely monitored by the Mayo senior team medical staff over the coming days. We all wish Cillian the very best and a speedy recovery and hopefully we will see him back wearing the Mayo jersey again before too long."