McStay happy Mayo back where they need to be
pic:stephen Ways: Responded Manager Kevin Posed Well Was After Saying Winning The Side Mcstay Raymond The By Breffni Marken/sportsfile Squad Game, A Happy His To Mayo Man The Galligan’s Challenge
IT wasn't pretty but Mayo got their championship season back on track on Saturday evening when they cast aside a weak Cavan challenge.
The guests never laid a glove on Kevin McStay's charges who won pulling up in front of one of the smallest championship crowds in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in living memory.
The Mayo manager was a happy man after the game, saying his side responded well to the challenge posed by Raymond Galligan’s Breffni squad.
“The win is exactly what we had on order. That’s what we needed. We needed two points just to get back to where we thought we could be at this stage of the race,” stated McStay.
“You’re always worried after losing a Connacht final. There’s always that fear, that you’d be flat. We had a chat Wednesday and the boys were well up for it,” he added.
Any thoughts of Cavan upsetting the home side and gaining a statement victory against the defeated Connacht finalists had evaporated by half-time when they trailed by four points, 0-5 to 0-9, despite playing with the aid of the stiff breeze.
Mayo had dominated the possession stakes and looked lively and energetic with the O’Connor brothers, Diarmuid and Cillian, back in the starting team together for the first time since the national league match in Omagh at the end of February.
Their presence gave Mayo an energetic edge with Diarmuid’s workrate around the middle providing the home side with a solid foundation, while Cillian, the championship’s all-time leading scorer, looked lively and decisive.
Cavan lined up with eight recognised defenders in their starting team, but their hopes of stifling Mayo were unsuccessful as the men in green and red showed great efficiency in front of the posts with each of their nine first-half shots sailing between the posts.
At the other end, Cavan had to rely on three frees from Oisín Brady and singles courtesy of Oisin Kiernan and Ciaran Brady. The guests had a sniff of a goal chance after 26 minutes when Oisín Kiernan, burst through, but he was quickly swallowed up by Mayo defenders.
Cavan needed an explosive start to the second period, but it failed to occur as Ryan O’Donoghue, Cillian O’Connor, Stephen Coen, Matthew Ruane and Darren McHale all kicked points for the leaders.
The Breffni men badly needed a goal but had to be happy with single points from Tiernan Madden and Oisín Brady. However, Luke Fortune sent a punched goal effort just wide and Padraig Faulkner’s shot was taken off the Mayo goal-line by Diarmuid O’Connor.
As the last quarter arrived, Cavan were given a boost when James Smith’s effort found the net, but Mayo soon erased any doubts about the result when O’Donoghue and Cillian O’Connor pointed in the following minute.
That was the end of the affair and all seemed well for Mayo until the final seconds when team-captain Paddy Durcan, who had been added from the sub’s bench following an injury lay-off, fell to the ground with a leg injury.
Afterwards, McStay hoped the setback wasn’t as serious as first thought and said Durcan was walking freely in the dressingroom following the game.
R O'Donoghue (0-7, 4f), C O'Connor (0-4), M Ruane (0-3), D McHale (0-2), E McLaughlin (0-1), S Coen (0-1), J Carney (0-1), C Loftus (0-1)
: O Brady (0-5f), J Smith (1-0), O Kiernan (0-1), C Brady (0-1), T Madden (0-1)
C Reape; J Coyne, D McBrien, S Callinan; S Coen, D McHugh, E McLaughlin; M Ruane, D O'Connor; J Carney, D McHale, J Flynn; C O'Connor, T Conroy, R O'Donoghue
: C Loftus for McHugh (47), B Tuohy for Carney (47), P Durcan for McLaughlin (56), A O'Shea for Conroy (56), P Towey for Ruane (63)
: G O'Rourke; C Reilly, K Brady, B O'Connell; N Carolan, P Faulkner, Conor Brady; O Kiernan (Denn), Ciaran Brady; C Rehill, G Smith, O Kiernan (Castlerahan); O Brady, J Smith, J McLoughlin
: T Madden for K Brady (20), L Fortune for Rehill (30), C Madden for Carolan (ht), C O'Reilly for Kiernan (Castlerahan) (47), D Lovett for Conor Brady (66)
D Coldrick (Meath)