Mayo’s goalkeeper was honest in his assessment
Reaction
Edwin McGreal
DAVID CLARKE walks into the media room in Croke Park some thirty minutes after the final whistle. Alan Dillon follows shortly after. Neither probably relishes the thought of being questioned about the game just played but they both step forward all the same. For that, at least, you have to credit them.
Clarke’s honesty and evident frustration is both understandable and refreshing. When asked if he looked on the result as one bad day or something deeper in the Mayo psyche, the Mayo goalkeeper could easily have kicked for touched and described it as ‘one of those days’. He didn’t.
“There has to be a problem there someplace, continuously getting beat,” he said. “We just didn’t maybe get the intensity from the start of the game.
“We came up here to get a result and, unfortunately, that wasn’t the result we were looking for. Maybe it’s becoming a familiar feeling, coming up here [Croke Park] and getting beat. I suppose the most disappointing thing was the performance. We didn’t perform.”
Alan Dillon is asked if it’s fair to compare the second half performance against Meath in last year’s All-Ireland quarter final and Sunday’s display.
“You can look at it that way as well,” replied the 29 years-old. “Definitely, when we were on top we didn’t put the scores on the board in the first half and the same thing happened against Meath. It’s something we will have to identify and try and improve because, at this level, you won’t get a second chance.”
Despite Mayo’s wastage in the first half, two early second half points from Conor Mortimer pared the deficit back to two and offered some hope. But Cork then found a gear Mayo weren’t able to keep with.
“That’s the disappointing thing I suppose,” admitted Clarke. “The ease with which they were able to do it. Everybody was making silly mistakes, myself included. There were passes going and they were hitting the ground and slipping away from us, just small things like that were getting on top of us and they [Cork] just pulled away.”
And so where are Mayo at now?
“At the start of the league and, maybe progressing through the league, we realised that there is a large gap between ourselves and Cork, Kerry, Tyrone and the likes so that’s something we’re trying to close,” continued Clarke.
“We weren’t fooling ourselves coming up here that maybe we were the best team in the country but we were working towards that. I believe there’s more in us than that [display].”
Sligo in Markievicz Park is looming on the horizon. Does a defeat like Sunday’s game present massive mental challenges ahead of championship?
“It’s part of sport,” reflects Alan Dillon. “I think you have to bounce back as best you can. It’s just disappointing. There was a national title on the line today and it was one we had a chance to win and it is just disappointing that we let it go.
”I’d say come four o’clock yesterday [Saturday] we were raging hot favourites going into the [Sligo] game. I think, come today, it will be even enough but it will be a tough task down there. We have five weeks preparation and hard work to do. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking forward to, the summer.”
Without trying to spin it, Clarke reflects on some positives from the league campaign.
“We’ve got a stronger panel, got a bit more experience. The younger lads played tough away games, got to a final, unfortunately didn’t get the result. Next on the agenda is Sligo, we’ve a lot of work to get done and that’s what we’re concentrating on.”
