Farrell: 'We are always looking towards the summer'
NO GETTING AHEAD OF THEMSELVES: Mayo manager Kevin McStay is delighted with Mayo's late winner while Dublin manager Dessie Farrell is not hitting the panick button. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
THERE’S nothing quite like a smash-and-grab victory to magnify the emotions.
Especially when the winning score arrives seconds before the final whistle and means that the All-Ireland champions have been toppled in Castlebar for the first time since 2012.
Cue the customary pitch invasion from Mayo’s football-mad supporters in the crowd of 14,789 and a roar that echoed across the Saturday night sky as they savoured a rare home league win against their nemesis.
The team’s performance may have left plenty of room for improvement, but this was all about the result. Dublin were chasing a fifth straight victory in Mayo’s backyard so this was long overdue.
A match that seemed destined to end in a draw after ten scoreless minutes down the home stretch was instead decided by a moment of ingenuity from Ryan O’Donoghue, whose quick free from the right wing put Fergal Boland in a match-winning position.
The redemption man’s nerveless strike settled the argument and sent the natives home happy.
“Delighted with the two points, I can tell you that anyway,” Mayo manager Kevin McStay explained afterwards.
“I’d have taken one, on the second-last attack. The two points are really valuable to us.
“That’s four – if we get another two now somewhere in February, we’d feel like we were in a position where we could think about what’s ahead of us.
“I’m really pleased with the last free. I love that, a guy who’s clued in. He knows he was never going to get it from that position and he backed himself to make the pass. And of course Fergal curls it over, that was a bonus point for us. That was great, very pleased.”
McStay admitted that his team had ‘got off to a bad start’.
That was illustrated on the scoreboard as Dublin raced into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead after 20 minutes.
The usual suspects like Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Seán Bugler, Ciarán Kilkenny and Con O’Callaghan were pulling the strings, and the scores flowed easily.
Dublin were playing like they owned the place while Mayo were passive and ponderous.
But the homeside gradually got into their own stride, and the arrival of Donnacha McHugh and Stephen Coen off the bench allowed McStay to change his team’s shape.
Five points in eight minutes also gave the home crowd something to shout about.
The pick of these scores came from Paul Towey and Bob Tuohy while Ryan O’Donoghue also threw in a ‘slicer’ off his right boot for good measure.
By half-time the match was deadlocked at 0-8 apiece and it was all to play for.
Dublin hit the ground running after the restart to race ahead again after scores from goalkeeper David O’Hanlon (free), Paddy Small (free) and Cormac Costello.
There was a sense that Mayo seemed to have lost their bearings again.
But they were sparked into life in the 52nd minute by the most unlikely of goalscorers. Stephen Coen followed his instincts to chase down a point effort from Jordan Flynn that dropped short, and beat David O’Hanlon to the punch to score the first goal of his Mayo career.
The league champions were a point ahead swinging into the home straight, but Dublin continued to engineer scoring chances and, while some were spurned, Cian Murphy and Con O’Callaghan did raise white flags that edged the visitors ahead after 62 minutes.
Remarkably though, they failed to score for the final 12 minutes.
A seventh point of the evening from Ryan O’Donoghue levelled the match for the fifth time in the 64th minute and ten minutes of an arm-wrestle followed as both sides chased a winner.
Mayo got there first.
“I think we are definitely a little bit behind,” said Dessie Farrell afterwards as he reflected on a second successive defeat.
“There is no question about that. It is nothing that we will get overly concerned about.
“We want to be as competitive as we can in the league, but we are always looking towards the summer and what that brings us. We’re not going to put a gun to our own heads in terms of Division One status being crucial or paramount to us.
“It is definitely something we would like to attain and achieve but as I say this is all about giving younger players experience, trying to unearth one or two, trying out some different things tactically. And then getting senior lads who have had time off up to speed in the league. The championship comes very quickly.”
: R O’Donoghue (0-7, 6fs), S Coen (1-0), C Reape (0-1, ‘45), J Carney (0-1), B Tuohy (0-1), F Boland (0-1), P Towey (0-1)
C Costello (0-4, 3fs), C O’Callaghan (0-2), S Bugler (0-2), J McCaffrey (0-2), D O’Hanlon (0-1, 1f), C Murphy (0-1), B Fenton (0-1), P Small (0-1, 1f).
C Reape; J Coyne, R Brickenden, S Callinan; P Durcan, D McBrien, E McLaughlin; J Flynn, J Carney; B Tuohy, F Boland, C Reid; A O’Shea, P Towey, R O’Donoghue.
: D McHugh for Reid (10); S Coen for McLaughlin (30); T Conroy for Towey (48); C O’Connor for O’Shea (57); D Duffy for Tuohy (64);
D O’Hanlon; T Clancy, S McMahon, L Gannon; G McEneaney, C Murphy, J McCaffrey; B Fenton, S Bugler; R McGarry, C Basquel, C Kilkenny; P Small, C O’Callaghan, C Costello.
: J Small for McCaffrey (50); N Scully for McGarry (53); P Ó Cofaigh Byrne for Basquel (57); L O’Dell for Costello (65); K O’Gara for P Small (69);
F Kelly (Longford)
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