Liam McHale ‘very disappointed’ with Connacht final display against Galway

THERE was no sugar-coating, no hiding away from reality. Liam McHale didn’t mince his words after Mayo’s disappointing defeat in Sunday’s Connacht final. The women in green and red had been out-played by Galway and the team manager was honest in his assessment.

“We’re very disappointed. We didn’t get going at all, from start to finish. Even though we were level at half-time, six-all, we were trying to hang in there. Galway had kicked some bad wides and we were lucky to be level at half-time.

“I said to the players we were lucky to be in the position we were and we should try and take advantage of it. We were playing into the ‘scoring goal’ in the second half and I thought we might get into a bit of a groove.

“We had two goal chances and needed one of them to go in to ignite us, but we were flat all day and didn’t seem to be able to get any pace into the game. We couldn’t get any width into it, our ball movement was poor. We weren’t aggressive enough in the tackle and we had worked a lot on that. We weren’t careful enough with the ball. We weren't aggressive and didn’t play with pace. We stood up waiting for somebody else to do it and when you get into a mode like that it’s very hard to snap out of it.

“We weren’t aggressive enough in the tackle and we had worked a lot on that. We weren’t careful enough with the ball. We weren't aggressive and didn’t play with pace. We stood up waiting for somebody else to do it and when you get into a mode like that it’s very hard to snap out of it.

“We looked tired and jaded and we didn’t look energetic or enthused and that’s very disappointing. They looked like they had all the energy and they really ebleived in themselves. As the game went on we looked more unsure of ourselves,” the Ballina man explained before describing how preparation had gine since the team ended their league campaign six weeks previously.

“We only got one challenge game in before this. I know Galway were in the same boat but maybe that had something to do with the way we performed today. We played one game against Donegal and tried to get one against Armagh but that fell through because of exams and things like that. It’s the same for every team and there’s no excuse. Galway were very good today and we weren’t.

Our in-house games and our practises have been great so the management team came here with great confidence and I thought the players came here with great confidence too.

“After a good month and half of training it’s just back to the drawing board for us.”