McStay predicts ‘ferocious contest’ against Roscommon

FROM facile to ‘ferocious’ in a fortnight.

That’s how Kevin McStay summed up what lies ahead of Mayo after a win that, while welcome, will be quickly forgotten about.

“The win is exactly what we was on order. That’s what we needed. We needed two points just to get back to where we thought we could be at this stage of the race,” began McStay.

“It sets us up brilliantly now for the next round against Roscommon and get the lads back on the pitch. I knew there was going to be a fairly decent reaction to losing the Connacht final and in fairness it wasn’t top tops but it was pretty consistent. We kept the scoreboard ticking over. I was really pleased with the two points. That was the big thing.”

One scribe neatly summed up the win over Cavan by suggesting it was more like a league game than a championship game.

Indeed, the four-figure attendance was the lowest yet of any post-pandemic Mayo championship. 

“It felt like a round robin match, I would say,” replied McStay.

“You know there’s a lot at stake and yet it’s not probably the sort of heat we had up in Pearse Stadium, perhaps. I can assure you, the two points were still a big focus at half-time even though we were in the lead. We wanted to get back out and pad it out and get it done. We never got it done. It was still kind of in the balance. I can’t complain about it.”

 But surely there must be something to complain about? This is Mayo, after all.

“I think you’ll see the turnovers stopped that momentum. So that’s what we’ll work on in the next fortnight so one of these days we might get the shooting and the turnovers to one side and we’ll see where that might get us,” said McStay.

“We are pleased as a group. Because you are always worried, losing a Connacht final. There’s always that fear, that you’d be flat. We’d a chat Wednesday and the boys were well up for it.”

With progression out of the group now almost a fait accompli – assuming Cavan don’t beat Roscommon or Dublin – will Mayo change their training approach to last year, which saw them run spectacularly out of steam against Dublin?

“Well last year’s performance against Dublin was a function, we think, of the Galway match a week earlier. It’s very very difficult for any team, no matter what sort of training you’ve done, to go from a major championship game on a Sunday to another one the following Sunday. So to answer your question, we came back a good bit later this year,” said McStay.

“Obviously because we know the group a bit better and we know what we have to do physically and this time around different targets, this is a brand new competition and let nobody for a second think that we didn’t want to win the Connacht championship.

“Today is lovely, but we left an opportunity behind us to push that one on. It’s done now, we can’t look back and we’re all out from under the duvet and we drive on. That’s the way it will be.”

Now to Roscommon – for the third time this year. A different ball game or more of the same?

“I expect a more ferocious contest,” replied the long-time Roscommon town resident.

“We know how close that game was the last day in the Hyde even though the scoreboard might have said slightly otherwise. We know there were moments in that game the game could have swung either way. This is a massive match. We’ll get a good look at them then. Prep starts for Roscommon maybe tomorrow [Sunday] morning.”