Gardiner ‘couldn’t be more proud’ of U-20s despite championship exit to Down

ONE can – and should – call their consistency into question.

But nobody could fault the effort that the Mayo U-20s put into the semi-final of a competition they didn’t anticipate when plans were first hatched at the end of 2023.

Their participation in the All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship, as evidenced by the small crowd, had long since gone over the heads of anyone that wasn’t related to the players.

But, according to Peadar Gardiner, the ‘unbelievable honour’ of playing for Mayo still stands, regardless of the letter in the name of the competition.

“It’s disappointing. They gave an unbelievable effort, the players, all day long. They battled so hard. I think they probably deserved more of a reward from today’s performance. They left everything out there, so no complaints for us,” the Mayo U-20 manager told The Mayo News.

It came down to the last kick of the game. Fair enough.

But, yet again, Mayo were found wanting for consistency, and more importantly, the inability to push on after going ahead.

“That’s the million-dollar question. We played well in patches throughout the whole season but we weren’t able to get the consistency in our play. That’s something we’ll have to get back to,” said Gardiner.

“That’s no fault of anybody. Everyone gave an unbelievable effort. The players, particularly since we exited the championship to Sligo, the last three and a half weeks have shown huge character, huge resilience to bounce back and a desire to play for Mayo, which is unbelievable. I couldn’t be more proud of them, really.

“Any Mayo person that was there today would have been proud of them. We didn’t get the result we wanted but they gave it everything. We can’t do any more than that.”

The former Crossmolina and Mayo footballer also appeared to dismiss the notion that Mayo would have been better off letting the players back to their clubs after they were dumped out of the ‘A’ championship.

“Obviously, some of the boys are overage and that was their last opportunity to play for Mayo U-20s...we’ve got 15-16 of the lads underage again this year. That’s all part of their development, that’s what we use this competition for to get more experience into them and to learn more about them and more about how to play for Mayo and what it means to play for Mayo,” said Gardiner when asked to about what Mayo gained from playing in the ‘B’ championship.

“That’s the card that we’re drawn, I suppose administrators make decisions on competitions. We gave it everything. We gave it everything down in Ballinamore and we gave it everything today.”