Aidan O'Shea looking to avoid repeat of 2011 London scare

Aidan O’Shea of Mayo, pictured today for AIB at the launch of the 2026 GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Pic: Dan Sheridan

Aidan O'Shea is banking on there being no repeat of Mayo's horror 2011 trip to London when they return to the English capital this weekend.

Mayo will open their Connacht SFC campaign against London in Ruislip on Saturday, a tie that will bring back bad memories for a group of veteran players.

O'Shea, Rob Hennelly and Cillian O'Connor were all involved 15 years ago too when Mayo escaped to victory against the Exiles after extra time.

And current manager Andy Moran ultimately bailed Mayo out with seven points to help them belatedly see off a London side that had only finished above Kilkenny at the bottom of Division 4.

"I've vivid memories about it, to be honest," said O'Shea who was speaking at AIB's launch of the All-Ireland SFC.

"I could write a small book on that one. For some reason, we decided to fly out of Galway instead of Knock. We went from Galway to Waterford to Southend. It took us nearly longer to get to London than it would to New York.

"I remember it was the Champions League final, which was also in London. I think Messi scored against United. Even the prep the night before was just silly stuff."

It didn't get much better on the day itself for O'Shea, just 20 at the time, who was left on the bench.

"The reason I didn't start was because I had an exam on the Saturday previous in Dublin," explained the Breaffy clubman. "I was a bit of a crammer and used to stay up all night studying.

"I was late by about 20 minutes for the training session on the Sunday morning, I'd slept in. I played well in the previous couple of weeks. I'd moved to midfield and finished the League quite well.

"James (Horan) at the time didn't start me because I was late for the training on the Sunday. I was absolutely ripping. We had a bit of a back and forth over it.

"So I was quite raging going to London anyway because I felt I should have been starting, but I wasn't.

"Then things weren't going great early doors. I was like, 'Oh fuck, this isn't good'. It went to extra time. Thankfully Kevin McLoughlin, Trevor Mortimer, Cillian and myself came on late in the game.

"We should have beaten them (in normal time), let's be honest about it. I think we won okay in extra time, comfortably enough.

"I remember afterwards the county board running onto the pitch trying to get us out of there. There were a lot of Mayo fans unhappy. And we were nearly late for our flight home!

"So yeah, it was a strange, strange occasion and one that would warn you for any trip away or any game like that again.

"That's why we've been looking at London and their games over the last few weeks and getting our details right for this weekend. Because you don't want to run into what we did 15 years ago. It was a scary one but we got out of there alive."

Mayo have had a few tough days more recently too. O'Shea picked out the 2024 All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final defeat to Derry on penalties.

"I think the really frustrating part is that we...I would say on reflection on those games, we left too little on the scoreboard to let certain things happen," said O'Shea. "The Derry game, for example, they got a late shot off the post that fell into somebody's arms to get a fist over the bar.

"The Donegal game last year, the kick-out, putting ourselves in the position to get into a preliminary quarter-final, and then we let it slip in 12 seconds.

"These things can happen but the fact we left ourselves in positions where we were only that one point away, that's probably the frustrating part when you look back on those games.

"We've regressed in terms of our progress in the All-Ireland series and in the Connacht Championship over the last couple of years to a position where you can't be happy with it.

"It's been very frustrating being on the wrong side of those tight margins but we've left those margins tight, and that's what happens when they're that tight."