McHale ‘bitterly disappointed’ after Mayo lose out after trek to Armagh

HE had seen it all before as a player and a mentor with various inter-county teams, but that didn’t dull the disappointment felt by Mayo manager Liam McHale when he spoke to the media after Sunday evening's defeat in Armagh.

“We’re bitterly disappointed, because, of course we came here to win. We wanted to get a good start and took the wind advantage from the start, but Armagh started very strong and got a good lead. They kept us at arm’s length after that. We tried very hard but they moved us around a lot and we expended a lot of energy trying to press their kick-out and force steals and turn-overs in their half, but it just wasn't happening for us,” McHale explained.

That said, Mayo created a lot of chances at the other end according to the manager.

“We kicked three or four into the goalie’s hands and we had five or six blocked down. That was down to the pressure Armagh put on us but it was down to us rushing things too. Armagh were good. Their leaders stood up. Bláithín Mackin was superb. She just ran the show and when you have players like that you’re not going to lose a lead because they're so composed.

“We had a few half-chances for goals but the last hand-pass didn’t stick and if we got one of them we had a chance. They’re a very good side and they’ll be going to play Kerry in the semi-final with a lot of confidence,” the Ballina man added before speaking about his own team.

“We’re a young squad and when things weren’t going well they got cautious. They were afraid to be caught out of position and afraid to make mistakes. I was happy at half-time because we were only five or six down and we did play better in the second half, but not having Fionnuala (McLaughlin) there for the whole match was a hindrance because she gives us real dash. I don’t want to be complaining about missing one player but we probably should have got her on a bit earlier but we didn’t want to jeopardise her shin-splints. She hasn't been training properly for six weeks and was a huge loss. The two Needhams were a huge loss too and when you’re as young and inexperienced as our squad is, you need all those players to give you a shot at winning the game when you’re coming up here,” he added before speaking about the scheduling of the game – 5.45pm on a Sunday evening in Armagh.

“It was a tough one on the fans. You’re trying to grow the game; you’re trying to get bums on seats and this happens. It's very difficult for Mayo supporters to come here at this time. If it was at 3 o’clock it might be different. We were down a good few hundred fans today.”