“We have to give the keeper more options” says Mayo manager after Cavan draw

IT was surely a baptism of fire in Cavan for new Mayo manager Diane O'Hora. Her team conceded an early goal and were left chasing the game for too long: “We started really slow, we seemed to be chasing the game from the start, obviously with their early goal. So it's probably something that we need to look at,” she told The Mayo News afterwards.

“I guess with the fact that it's January and the softer ground, the wet balls, we made a lot of handling errors, which caused us a lot of trouble. We seem to be playing very conservatively, if that makes sense, as opposed to front foot football,” O'Hora added.

In the second half, Mayo came out with a little bit more energy: “Our second half was a much improved performance. At half-time, to be quite honest, the players probably needed a reset.

When you consider that it's the first competitive game, and challenges really count for nothing. The players needed to try and get their heads around what we're trying to do, and to go back on plan, basically. It kind of became a bit frantic.”

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O'Hora explained that her side had to go back to basics and they needed to be a bit more front-footed. The manager hailed the goal Mayo scored as a brilliant effort of two classy forwards: “It was a fantastic assist. That was Sinead Cafferky that delivered the pass. She managed to evade three tackles before actually delivering that inch-perfect pass to Sinead Walsh. And that's where Walsh can really give huge benefits to a team, is just by her finishing quality. It's top class.”

Mayo could have got away with a narrow win. One point up with only seconds to go. But a mix up at the back led to the last-gasp equaliser for Cavan after Mayo had possession.

“We have to give the ‘keeper more options to get that ball out. There was just one one defender in there with the ‘keeper. And of course, Cavan were going to chase us down. So we probably do need to make sure that we have a sort of a go-to for a situation like that, if it ever arises again,” O'Hora acknowledged, adding: “I'm delighted with the girls, the character that they showed to get themselves back into that match.

And to have suffered incredible blows by two players being sin-binned, even at the one time, and having managed to come away with the draw. It's just an admirable character that I believe the group showed. I'm so proud of that.”

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