Reaction
Mike Finnerty
THE Mayo junior footballers will be back in action in August for their All-Ireland semi-final against the British champions, and their manager is hoping that there will be no club league matches fixed on that weekend.
Reflecting on the fact that a number of his players — including the Davitts, Hollymount/Carramore and Burrishoole contingent — had to play club games last Friday and Saturday evening, John Kelly called on the County Board to support his team’s bid to kick on and win the All-Ireland junior crown.
“With all we’ve gone through in the last couple of weeks, the most pleasing thing is that we’ve come out on the right side of it,” Kelly told The Mayo News shortly after last Sunday’s win over Galway.
“There were obstacles put in our way, we had to fight to get different things that we wanted, and that’s not the way it should be.
“I’m disappointed that the [club] league games were played. You could see some of the lads had to work extra hard out there.
“I hope when we’re playing the All-Ireland semi-final that there are no league games on the weekend we’re playing.
“You don’t get too many chances to play in an All-Ireland semi-final so now we want to go on and try win it. “
After the disappointment of losing last year’s provincial final defeat to Sligo, John Kelly was also keen to pay tribute to the players who had shown great commitment to the cause in recent months.
“It’s great for the lads,” he said as the team posed for a photograph with the trophy. “They’ve worked fierce hard and they got their reward today after two years. I’m really proud of them.
“Collectively, all the lads put in a tremendous effort but I thought Barry Leonard put in a fantastic effort for us. He wore his heart on his sleeve and was outstanding.
“These guys have travelled from Dublin, Limerick, Cork. . They don’t get expenses, and they want to play for Mayo. This is important to them.”
The game itself followed a topsy-turvy pattern; it took Mayo 21 minutes to open their account but they still led at half-time after Colin Dempsey’s goal turned the tide.
And despite Galway engineering themselves back in front early in the second half, Mayo outscored them by 1-7 to 0-1 in the last quarter.
“It was an unbelievable game,” admitted Kelly. “We had spells where we dominated and they had spells where they were on top.
“We dominated the last quarter though and that was what made the difference in the end.
“We were very confident coming in that the lads were in good shape but we hadn’t had a competitive game together,” he continued.
“And maybe that was why it took us a while to get up to the speed of things. But I knew we were well-prepared and that if we could get our own game right, we’d be there or thereabouts because we have quality footballers. These lads are really good players.
“The goals came at the right times. Maybe we were struggling in the first half when [Colin] Dempsey got the goal. We were very edgy and kicked nine wides up to that.
“That goal settled us, the lads calmed down after that, and we were very relaxed at half-time. We knew that we had the ability to beat Galway, we just needed to do the simple things well.”
The Mayo junior bandwagon will roll into Ruislip in London on Sunday, August 11 and time will tell if they get the support they want, and deserve, from the powers-that-be.
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