Full throttle for 70 minutes, says James Horan

Horan: ‘It’s full throttle for 70 minutes’


Mike Finnerty

MAYO will be looking to emulate the likes of Manchester United and the Dublin footballers when they begin the defence of their Connacht championship title against Galway next Sunday.
Speaking to The Mayo News last week, Mayo manager James Horan said his team intended to hit the ground running in Salthill and that they would try and force the pace from the very start.
“It’s full throttle for seventy minutes,” declared Horan. “Dublin won a National League doing it, Donegal won an All-Ireland doing it. That’s how [Manchester] United won a Premiership. That’s what we’re looking to do.
“It’s big game day,” he continued. “Playing Galway in Salthill as double-Connacht champions, as All-Ireland finalists. That’s where you get tested. We’ll be looking to do the testing. That’s what you look forward to, they’re the battles you want.”
Despite having to deal with a succession of injuries in recent months, and lingering doubts over the fitness of some players, Horan was keen to accentuate the positive ahead of only his second championship with Galway as Mayo boss.
“I always have a good feeling with this team. They’re very ambitious, things have gone well the last few weeks, and we’re definitely on the right track. But May 19 will prove, or disprove, that.
“I feel we’ve made progress and it’s really come together over the last few weeks but May 19 will tell a tale.”
Tellingly, Horan admitted all he had learned from the recent challenge match with Fermanagh was, “that the road from Sligo to Enniskillen isn’t great”, and he was honest in his admission that there was plenty for Mayo to work on following the NFL semi-final defeat to Dublin.
“We weren’t getting the return that we needed, we had a lot of ball but we weren’t converting the chances at the rate you need to,” he began.
“We were letting a lot of teams run through us so our defence, and our individual tackling, could improve.
“Our turnovers against was way too high and that costs you games. If you take the league semi-final, we had half-backs attacking and we dropped the ball short, into the goalie’s hands, and that sets you up for a counter-attack against a running team.
“Things like that make a huge difference in championship, when you’re through on goal that you get the score or get a good strike to kill the ball. It’s small stuff but very important.”
However, in keeping with the Mayo mindset of focussing on the positive aspects of their preparation and recent playing performances, Horan was keen to remind his inquisitors that the best is yet to come from this group.
“We didn’t play as well as we can in the National League, for a number of reasons like the heavy training we were doing. But we could easily have won six or seven of the games we played, without getting anywhere near top gear.
“You have to take some sort of encouragement from that, that we’re strong,” he said. “And when we get polished up, and right, we’ll be a tough team to play.”