UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL Mayo’s Chris Barrett has a difference of opinion with Tyrone’s Ronan McNabb of Tyrone during last Sunday’s National League match in Omagh. Pic: Sportsfile
Talking Tactics
Billy Joe Padden
I WAS never as happy to be wrong about a prediction and relief was definitely my most prevalent emotion when the final whistle sounded in Omagh last Sunday.
Because as much as Mayo won that game, Tyrone left it behind.
It was a fantastic result to win up there, and the players will have arrived home on Sunday night feeling great about themselves, and that can only be a good thing with Donegal coming to Castlebar next weekend.
Mickey Harte will really be doing some soul-searching though this week. His team created so many scoring chances, and yet shot fourteen wides.
That ineptitude, coupled with a moment of real class from Kevin McLoughlin (who I still think should be playing as a sweeper) is why Mayo headed home with two points.
But if I’m being honest, I thought Mayo were terrible in the second half after putting in a decent first half performance.
With a few notable exceptions I thought they created very little in an attacking sense, especially after half-time.
The scores that stood out for me were Cillian O’Connor’s point from play and Tom Parsons goal; they were really well-orchestrated moves.
But I couldn’t understand why Mayo persisted with this annoying habit of kicking the ball into the corners. It’s so frustrating to watch and I think it’s counter-productive.
You’ve got Andy Moran running out to the flanks trying to win every kind of ball, and then even if he wins it, more often than not, he ends up handpassing it back to the guy who kicked it to him in the first place.
But let’s go back to Parsons goal; for me that score wasn’t made by Cillian O’Connor’s delivery or even Parsons’ brilliantly-timed run. I believe it was set up by Keith Higgins’ initial pass out of defence which put seven or eight Tyrone defenders on the wrong side of the ball.
Then Fergal Boland hit another quick pass into Cillian, and his final ball lands in front of the goals, not into the corner.
My theory would be that unless you can kick the ball into that area in front of the goal, then you shouldn’t kick it.
Against a blanket defence like Tyrone’s the kind of football that led to the Paddy Durcan and Shane Nally points is the kind of football that works.
Mayo moved the ball from side to side, picked their moments, didn’t force the issue, and got their scores.
But whereas they mixed up their attacking moves a little in the first half, it seemed to be me that they completely lost their way for the second half.
Time after time it was like they were trying to recreate the move that led to Parsons’ goal and they just kept kicking the ball aimlessly into the Tyrone half.
I couldn’t understand it, and it led to too many turnovers.
Carrying the ball, moving it from side to side, and trying to get a few runners off the shoulder would have been a much better way of opening Tyrone up.
Defensively I thought Mayo looked more balanced and more solid with Brendan Harrison getting back into the swing of things and Chris Barrett making his long-awaited return.
Management deserve credit for having the right shape to the team for that sort of game, and putting in two extra half-backs was a good call.
I’d be giving Stephen Rochford the credit too for the better attitude shown by the players. Obviously that issue had been addressed.
But there were a few aspects that certainly need work too, and one of these was the failure of our backs to engage the Tyrone players high enough up the field when they were attacking.
Letting them get to within 30 or 35 metres of the Mayo goal was too close for comfort in my opinion.
They needed to be tackled before they reached the 45m line.
That is something for the training ground this week.
Mayo leave room for improvement
