McStay eyes ‘huge’ Connacht prize after ‘mixed bag’ display
MAYO 1-15 ROSCOMMON 0-13 CONNACHT SFC SEMI-FINAL
In this era of endless navel-gazing over the provincial championships, Kevin McStay offered a refreshing counterpoint after his Mayo charges had dispatched Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park.
A five-point win over a Rossie collective that appeared low on confidence and lower still in their shooting percentages was not a performance that will win you an All-Ireland, or even get you close. But that’s not the point. Getting
to a Connacht final was critical for this group, their manager stressed.
“It’s huge for us. Myself and Stephen [Rochford] as senior coaches are around a long time, I’ve never won one with Mayo,” he reminded.
“There are a lot of young players in our group who haven’t won Connacht Championships. And we value the medals. I know people poo-poo it, but this is the best way into the round-robin, and we’re going to go after it.
“That’s what we feel, that’s our analysis, and we’re going to go after it as hard as we can. But look what we’re up against now.”
That would be Galway in Pearse Stadium on Sunday week. Pádraic Joyce has lost three of his four previous championship head-to-heads with Mayo; he could badly do with changing that narrative.
On the flip side, ever since claiming a Connacht five-in-a-row in 2015, Mayo have only two provincial titles – both of the must-win variety during the Covid-disrupted years of 2020 and ’21.
McStay was happy to take this ultimately straightforward victory watched by 13,967 sun worshippers and carry on, still “in charge of our rhythm” – unlike last year when defeats to Roscommon and Cork robbed him of that key ingredient.
The performance itself was a “mixed bag,” he surmised. “Not happy with the first half – as in five out of 10 maybe, max. But the second half, especially in the third quarter, we moved it up a gear . . . and that’s, I think, when we did the damage. We could have handled the finish better so I don’t know, maybe six and a half, seven out of 10 overall. Room to improve.”
For Davy Burke, it’s not quite back to the drawing board ahead of the Sam Maguire group stages but back to the training pitch after this scattergun performance. They had nine wides compared to Mayo’s five, but the real damage came after half-time when five of those wides were supplemented by three undercooked attempts and another off the post.
Diarmuid Murtagh, so sparkling before the break, duly lost his radar, missing four second-half efforts in open play.
When All-Star Enda Smith rushed his 61st-minute goal attempt instead of taking on Sam Callinan, skewing his shot wide of the near post, it encapsulated Roscommon’s day. They trailed by five at the time; that’s how it finished.
“Jesus, these boys are a long time around, they don’t need any home truths. They came out and put their best foot forward, you could see that we left three goal chances behind,” their manager Davy Burke suggested.
“We had 15 wides or something along those lines. There’s no home truths needed, maybe a bag of balls per man is needed, but I don’t need to tell any of these boys that 15 or 16 [misses] at this level won’t be good enough.”
In a nutshell, despite enduring lull periods in either half, Mayo prevailed because of their flying first and third quarters and because they got a healthy spread of scorers beyond their standout forward – not for the first time – Ryan O’Donoghue.
Aidan O’Shea set the agenda with an eighth-minute goal, cutting past Ruaidhrí Fallon on a right-to-left run into the goalmouth whereupon he arrowed a low left-footer back into the opposite corner.
The veteran target man went on to produce a busy 60-minute shift, his 1-1 tally supplemented by an involvement in several more Mayo points.
But after racing four clear, Mayo went into their shell as Murtagh got the Rossie scoreboard moving.
The hosts were two behind when football’s theme of the week – the risk-reward of wandering goalkeepers – made an outing.
Colm Reape was turned over inside the Roscommon ‘45’ – a rapier counter-attack ended with the ball in Ben O’Carroll’s hands, but he was bottled up by Mayo’s retreating rearguard and the goal chance was lost.
Parity
Murtagh drew the Rossies level for the first time on 32 minutes; they trailed by 1-6 to 0-8 at the break and restored parity soon after via Daire Cregg.
There followed Mayo’s most fluent and decisive spell: between the 40th and 57th minute, they outscored their rivals by 0-8 to 0-2.
This purple period was bookended by two points from Tommy Conroy – a timely return after a relatively barren spring. The same mark was achieved by Fergal Boland and sub Conor Loftus, who scored with his first touch.
O’Donoghue, however, was the glue who held it all together. His 0-7 included three from play and a mark; but he was also fouled for two of his three frees, was denied a 47th-minute goal by Conor Carroll (O’Shea fisting over in the follow-up), and generally tormented the Roscommon rearguard with his movement.
SCORERS – Mayo: R O’Donoghue 0-7 (3f, 1m); A O’Shea 1-1; F Boland, T Conroy, C Loftus 0-2 each; P Durcan 0-1. Roscommon: D Murtagh 0-5 (2f); D Cregg 0-4 (2f); B O’Carroll, D Smith, N Daly, E McCormack 0-1 each. MAYO: C Reape 7; S Callinan 7, R Brickenden 6, J Coyne 7; P Durcan 7, D McBrien 7, D McHugh 5; S Coen 6, M Ruane 7; J Carney 6, R O’Donoghue 8, J Flynn 6; T Conroy 7, A O’Shea 8, F Boland 7. Subs: E Hession 7 for McHugh (h-t), C Loftus 7 for Durcan (48), B Tuohy 6 for O’Shea (60), P Towey for Flynn (64), P O’Hora for Coyne (66). ROSCOMMON: C Carroll 7; D Murray 6, B Stack 6, N Higgins 6; N Daly 6, R Fallon 6, E McCormack 7; E Smith 6, U Harney 6; D Ruane 6, D Cregg 7, R Daly 7; B O’Carroll 6, D Murtagh 7, D Smith 6. Subs: P Gavin 6 for Murray (inj, 30), T O’Rourke 6 for Ruane (50), S Cunnane 6 for R Daly (60), C Cox for D Smith (64), J Fitzpatrick for Harney (66). REF: S Hurson (Tyrone).