Kevin McStay savours ticket to the Connacht final

A rain-soaked MacHale Park, a sun-drenched Dr Hyde Park, one win and one defeat to Roscommon.

It was a ‘mixed’ performance on both occasions, but Sunday’s trip to the Hyde finally yielded Connacht final ticket so savoured by Kevin McStay.

Mayo’s jovial general rated their first half performance a 5/10 (his metrics, not ours) and the overall performance as a 6.5 or 7/10.

“We felt we were the better team but couldn’t hammer it home and that was the frustrating part,” McStay said.

“Then, the third quarter we did move it quite well and our conversion rate went really well at that stage because we were getting into better shooting positions; easier scores. So that was satisfactory. But overall, fellas, it was just the ticket to the final.

“I think it was important… important for me, important for the team, important for the coaches, everybody that we get into a Connacht final.

“It’s the preferred route if we can do it, and now we’re in the final the objective is to go after it and see can we win it,” he added.

It’s certainly a far cry from last year, when his war-beaten troops sank from the highs of a National League final win over Kerry to losing to Roscommon in the space of a week.

“You saw Derry last night. It might have been something similar,” he said, referring to the Division 1 champions’ trouncing at the hand of Jim McGuinness’ Donegal.

“I just think it might have been a little bit flat. It’s a big time to win when you don’t win them regularly. Then you have to come back down for championship seven days later. This year, we have better control even though we came home from New York and pretty much missed the guts of a week. We missed two or three training sessions as a fact of the New York trip. But we knew it and we planned it.

“I think we’re fresh enough today now. Our training load is geared towards being fresh now as these big games come on.”

Mayo have avoided the weeks of sullen, uncomfortable post-defeat reflection that followed last year’s hosing in the Hastings.

But McStay’s eyes are now very much focused on what's on the horizon rather than what’s in the rear-view mirror.

The ex-army man has never made any secret of what the Connacht Senior Football Championship means to him.

He wasted no time in hammering that message home after Sunday’s semi-final.

“I never won one with Mayo. Some of the coaches have, obviously. A lot of young players in our group haven’t won Connacht championships, so it’s huge.

“We value the medals. I know people poo-poo it; this is the best way into the round robin. We’re going to go after it, that’s what we feel. That’s our analysis. And we’re going to go after it as hard as we can.

“The nice thing is we have two weeks because we’re in charge of our rhythm now again and we have work to do. We can get that work done and put up a massive show against Galway. That’ll be what we’ll be thinking anyway in the buildup to it.”