'Could write a book about it' - Aidan O'Shea on Mayo's 2011 London scare

ON a Sunday evening in the dying embers of May 2011, a multitude of Mayo hearts were being tested to the limit.

The Green and Red were two points down in the closing moments of their Connacht Championship quarter-final with London in Ruislip.

James Horan, the team's new manager was watching helplessly from the sideline as the crowd surged behind the barriers, trying to get a glimpse of the history about to unfold.

Then, the ball came to Andy Moran out near the sideline and the current Mayo manager brings us right back to that moment. 

“You need luck in football, you genuinely need luck. I remember keeping a ball in tight to the sideline. I managed to get to it and a fella comes in to nail me with a shoulder.

"He misses me, if he hit me I wouldn't have got the ball out to Trevor (Mortimer). Trevor kicks it over the bar and then Kevin McLaughlin kicks the equaliser and all of a sudden we go on this run for the next decade.

“I'll never forget it. You just need a tiny bit of luck. That team was young, it was hungry and from that everything changed.

"It was felt that we needed to put this young 18-year-old Cillian O'Connor into the team at that stage and that's what James did. Cillian kicked us to the Connacht Championship against Roscommon a couple of weeks later and we never looked back.”

Aidan O'Shea was a young tyro that day in Ruislip. The Breaffy bruiser was little more than a boy, but already in his third championship season. That memorable Sunday began with O'Shea on the sub's bench and he wasn't a happy man.

“I coould write a book about that weekend,” the full-forward tells The Mayo News. “I have vivid memories of that whole weekend. For some reason we decided to fly out of Galway instead of Knock.

"We went from Galway to Waterford and flew from Waterford to Southend. It took us longer to get to London that it would have to get to New York.

"The Champions League Final and the Heineken Cup were both on in London that weekend. Messi scored against United in Wembley I think. 

“The prep the night before was bad – a lot of silly stuff and there was just a bad feel to the whole thing. I didn't get to start that game.

"I had an exam the previous Saturday in Dublin and I was a bit of a crammer and sat up all night before the exam. Then, I ended up sleeping-in on the Sunday morning and being 20 minutes late for training. 

“I had played quite well the previous few weeks and finished the league going well around midfield, but James didn't pick me because I had been late for training and I was absolutely rippin.

"James and myself had a bit of back and forth about it, so I was raging going to London anyway because I thought I should have been starting, but I wasn't,” he adds before quickly explaining the happenings in Ruisplip.

“Things were going great early on, but thankfully we got out of it. Trevor Mort, Kevin Mac, Cillian and myself came on late in the game.

"We should have been beaten but we came through in extra-time. I remember the county board guys running onto the pitch afterwards trying to get us out of there and a lot of Mayo fans being unhappy.

"At the end of it all we were nearly late for the flight home too. It was a strange occasion, but one that taught us a great lesson about preparation and getting detail right for every game you play.”

O'Shea's team-mate that day, current manager Moran, concurs with the Breaffy man when recalling that day in McGovern Park when James Horan's tenure nearly ended before it began.

“I'd say I remember every kick of the ball to be honest. We just couldn't score, we missed a penalty, missed a couple of frees. We tried five or six different free-takers on the day. I tried them myself, I wouldn't be a natural free-taker, but it got to the point where you had to try. 

Alan Dillon would have been our free-taker on the right leg that time and he got concussed early, so it ended up with a lot of us having a go. It was tight and just one of those where we just had to dig it out. We were lucky, but as I said, every team needs a bit of luck.”