Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We must learn ..we just didn’t play as we can
SEVEN weeks ago James Horan was joined on the Croke Park pitch by his young son, Eoghan, to watch Mayo players collect their winners medals after the Connacht final.
Last night, Horan arrived into the press conference room in the stadium with Eoghan and, as they sat together, the Mayo manager reflected on the latest All-Ireland final heartbreak.
“We’re disappointed,” he said. “Disappointed with how we played today. Very disappointed that way.
“Look, we’re very proud of the guys and the effort and commitment they put in this year, and the development and growth that we’ve made this year.
“Today is very disappointing but, in the overall context, there was a lot of development this year.”
Mayo will try and find a way back again. It’s not something that is new to them, as they have somehow found a way on five occasions over the past nine years, though it might be tougher this time as this was a game that was theirs to win.
Had they taken their goal chances, they probably would have.
“We gave away a lot of turnovers in the first half that weren’t good decisions or good skills,” he said.
“But having said that we were still in the game. The penalty was a big turning point as well. We could have gone one up, but overall we started to snatch at shots then. So, we just didn’t play like we could.
“We’d a couple of goal chances in the first half as well. Bryan
Walsh was through, Conor (Loftus) and Aidan (O’Shea), didn’t stick them. We started to snatch at things a little bit in the second half. Just lost our composure a bit.”
Despite his disappointment, Horan can see a way back for Mayo’s young panel of players.
“Ah yeah, they’re an amazing bunch,” he remarked. “We’ve a full squad in there now and there’s a lot of really young guys that are serious dudes.
“Obviously it’s very, very disappointing. As we’ve said in every game, you can’t get too up or too down on an outcome. We try and learn from every single game. Do the same again.
“The rate of development has been very exciting from some of the players.”
Mayo had to wait four weeks to play the final due to the Covid problems in Tyrone’s camp that caused their semi-final with Kerry to be delayed by a fortnight.
Horan wasn’t using the delay as an excuse but he did feel that the absence of injured key forwards Cillian O’Connor and Jason Doherty did make a difference on the biggest stage.
“We needed time to recover,” he reflected. “Tyrone had the same team that came through the semi-final so they obviously had no injuries. Obviously losing a player like
Cillian is a loss,
Jason Doc and a couple of others.”