Back to the future as Connacht final beckons for Crossmolina

BRIAN Benson was wearing shorts and a jersey the last time he participated in a Connacht semi-final.

On Saturday, donning a bib, tracksuit and woolly hat, Benson did what he failed to do in 2006 by guiding his club to a provincial final.

“I said winning a county title as a manager was a bigger achievement than me winning it as a player. Obviously, leading a group is different,” Benson told The Mayo News after Crossmolina’s provincial semi-final win over St Michael’s.

“We were used to winning provincial titles back 20-odd years ago and just to see the fans again on the pitch today was special. That’s what we are talking about, that reconnection with the supporters and the fans and the playing group.

“To be honest, it looks like it could have been 20 years ago the way everyone came out on the pitch and was congratulating everyone,” continued Benson.

“But it’s only half the job is done, we have a huge task next week against Elphin. We won’t be taking our eye off the ball there.”

Benson conceded that not scoring for 15 minutes and conceding 1-5 on the bounce won’t cut it against the Roscommon intermediate champions next Sunday.

“It will be all over,” he warned. “We have to regroup…maybe do a video during the week and see why did we take our eye off the ball and what happened in that 20 minutes after we went seven up.”

But their calmness, patience, precision and superior footballers came out on top.

“Obviously they were a man down but sometimes that can go against you, because obviously, the opposition will work harder,” Benson told The Mayo News. “I think the way we managed the game, we didn’t come out with any injuries as such, we are delighted to contest a Connacht final next week.”

The man of the match, Conor Loftus, put it more bluntly.

“We definitely wouldn’t be happy with the overall performance,” the Mayo senior told The Mayo News.

“We started the game pretty well, got a couple of goals and we definitely took the foot off the gas. In fairness to Michaels’ they took every opportunity they got for the rest of the half after that and put us under serious pressure. So I suppose it’s good learning for us not to lay off and we could be driving on a bit more.

“I think in the second half we came out and probably controlled the game a bit better, didn’t give them too many opportunities to get back into it. The sending-off probably definitely helped us do that.”

Loftus elaborated: “We kind of played with Aaron Coggins as our spare man and Aaron’s as good a football brain as you’re going to get, especially for a young fella. He just allowed us to create overlaps in different areas of the pitch. which we didn’t have in the first half. We looked to exploit it that way and then you’ve the likes of Diarmuid [Coggins] as well starting finding pockets and things like that.”