Kevin McStay: 'David Gough is the best referee in the country by a mile'

The Mayo manager refused to blame the referee despite some contentious late frees

Mayo manager Kevin McStay during the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship final match between Galway and Mayo at Pearse Stadium in Galway. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Mayo manager Kevin McStay refused to blame referee David Gough after they fell short in the Connacht final despite having led 0-15 to 0-13 in the 69th minute.

Galway ran out one-point winners after three frees in a row, two of which were contentious. Tommy Conroy was adjudged to have fouled John Maher for the first. A driving run by Daniel O’Flaherty yielded the second. Late on, Conor Loftus was pressurised in his own half and Connor Gleeson came forward to kick the winner.

“You see frees at the end, the free at the beginning is worth a point as well but we all zone in on the last few minutes,” said McStay.

“David Gough is the best referee in the country by a mile. There were two teams out there driving into each other, it was hard, physical stuff and a very difficult match to referee because both teams wanted so badly to win the cup.

“We have no issues. He has reffed us on good and bad days in the past and it was a difficult game to ref. I would not have liked to referee it. I know we certainly got a bounce at certain stages of the match and then a few went against us and that is the way this game pans out.” 

Mayo had 28 shots to Galway’s 25 and finished with 100% conversion from frees but it was their shooting from play that proved costly.

“We thought we nearly had it when we were at three but we could not get it to four, so the game was always alive. There was no sense that we had it won or anything, but we thought we would get it over the line and didn’t.

“You have to commend Galway for staying at it; they were staring down defeat too and they were able to get it down the field got a few frees and keep themselves in contention and once there was only a point or two in it there was always a feeling it was there to be won.

“Yeah, it is disappointing, we were mad to win it, I hope ye all understand now there was no one lining up easy groups or difficult groups when you see the stuff that was going on there, both teams were committed to winning the Nestor Cup, but it has eluded us now.” 

Mayo were without captain Paddy Durcan for the decider. He was replaced by Eoghan McLaughlin before throw-in with Eoin O’Donoghue coming into the 26.

“We have to have our team in on a Thursday but we train on a Thursday night. We thought he would make it; he just failed his fitness test.

“It was just a bang on his calf, we think we could probably have played him for a while but the bigger picture is that there are three big round robin games so then do you risk him and lose him for two/three games? Let’s see if that was a good decision in a few weeks’ time.”