Kevin McStay getting ready for Roscommon

THE sun was shining around 240th and Broadway on Sunday afternoon as Kevin McStay stood near the sideline in Gaelic Park and gathered his thoughts.

The Mayo manager had enjoyed a rare stress-free afternoon walking the line, watching the team he is building work the scoreboard and pull away to win comfortably.

He summed up the day’s work neatly while also turning his thoughts to Sunday week.

“We got a nice run-out and I’m happy enough, there’s lots to be done in the next fortnight as we get ready for Roscommon.

“The expectation was that we’d win and perform and we did that. But it was a tricky occasion because the ground is full of Mayo fans, obviously, and you want to mix and have fun, but at the same time you have to keep your focus on the game.

“But it was really good fun, a brilliant crowd, great support for us, and we got a decent win. “We’ve been planning to get ready for Roscommon for a while now, so we have no issue about being ready for that game,” he added.

“They’ll have a bit of fun tonight, for sure, we’ll get home on Tuesday morning, do some light training on Wednesday, and the real serious stuff starts on Friday or Saturday to get ready for Ros’.”

The conversation quickly turned to the subject of Ryan O’Donoghue’s form.

The Belmullet man filled his boots against New York’s defence, clipping 1-13, and continues to lead the line impressively. His manager is a big fan of O’Donoghue’s work.

“He’s a special talent, I think we all know that. He’s the best corner-forward I’ve ever seen in my time, and that’s going back a while.

“He’s a marvellous player, he leads by example from start to finish, and he’s hyper competitive. We’re delighted to have in a Mayo jersey.

“He has very high standards and he was a leader in the group the minute he joined it.”

The rest of the forwards found it harder to put scores on the board and McStay admitted that missed goal chances were at the top of the ‘work-ons’ to be tackled before going to the Hyde.

He also reminded us about the psychology of Sunday’s game.

“There were some good movements, some slick hand-passes, we generated a lot of goal chances. The game was done at half-time and it’s very hard to keep them motivated to stay going. But we kept the same gap, pretty much.

“The lads will be a bit disappointed, we’ll be a bit disappointed, with the two goals we conceded,” he continued. “We’ll have to do a bit of an inquest to see how they came about.

“But the lads are really professional, they prepared really well, they understand the expectation around the fixture that we’ll win it by double digits.

“That’s everyone’s expectation, and sometimes it’s hard to deliver on that expectation.

“So I’m pleased, 15 [point win] is a good number.

“It doesn’t matter if you win by two or 22, you’re not going to take a whole pile from it. It’s a fixture that I know from experience can be tricky, but we negotiated that fairly easily in the end. “Of course there’s loads of work-ons into the week ahead of us, but I think it’a good place for us be in.”

_{Mayo captain Paddy Durcan poses for photos with Mayo fans after his side defeated New York}

The bainisteoir concluded his briefing with a word on the Mayo fans who had travelled by planes, trains and automobiles to show their support for their team.

“It really connects us and grounds us,” said McStay.

“We know that the Mayo fans, the diaspora, the fans at home, we know their identity is the team. So we have a great sense that we’re representing everyone and being out here has really strengthened that. We’ve had some great connections with people and the idea of seeing the green and red out here is terrific, it’s been a very positive experience for our boys.”