Mayo performance a positive as summer approaches

Performance a positive as summer approaches

John Gunnigan

WELL, that was better. After the loss to Kerry last time out, all kinds of alarm bells were going off in my head. Not about relegation per se but instead about the curiously languid manner in which we’d seemed to accept our fate that day.
One of the hallmarks of this Mayo team since 2011 has been its impressive work-rate, but against Kerry I felt something was lacking in this regard. That certainly wasn’t the case against Roscommon.
Right from the off on Sunday, it was so evident that the lads were intent on putting in a wholehearted performance. We grabbed the initiative as soon as the ball was thrown in and, that late wobble aside, we never looked like losing.
The changes from the Kerry match worked well. Aidan O’Shea was far more effective out the field and the three-man midfield, where he operated in tandem with brother Seamus and Tom Parsons, were utterly dominant for most of the game.
Alan Freeman also provided a more direct outlet in the full-forward line than we’ve had so far this spring. While he struggled at times in the quagmire conditions, it was on the whole a positive showing by the Aghamore man on his first appearance this year. On a faster – and drier! – pitch, the kind of low, fast ball sent Alan’s way has the potential to do real damage to the opposition.
Our shooting hasn’t been great in any game this year and our first-half wide count showed no improvement in this respect. All those first-half misses were in large part masked by the way we powered clear after the break. Evan Regan’s solo goal was a peach – albeit one that could well have been ruled out for over-carrying – and that second-half spell where we recorded 1-4 without reply effectively put the game beyond Roscommon’s reach.
Credit to the Rossies, they did finally rouse themselves near the finish, and made the last few minutes a good deal more tense for us than they really ought to have been. Even when they cut our lead back to just three points, though, we still looked the more likely to prevail.  We don’t often come out the right side of closely fought matches but we did so on Sunday with a good degree of composure.
Momentum is hugely important at this time of year. With this result safely banked, a home game to come against already-doomed Down next weekend gives us the perfect opportunity to end the spring campaign on a high.
To my mind, we’re simply not the same team at all when Cillian O’Connor isn’t playing.  It was, then, great to see him back on Sunday and if he’s fully fit for summer – and recall he was never really at full tilt at any stage last year – our forward line starts to look a whole load more potent.
Paddy Durcan slotted seamlessly back into the half-back line for the second half on Sunday. As we know from last year, his blistering pace is tailor-made for summer football. With Kevin Keane, Keith Higgins, Kevin McLoughlin and the rest of the Castlebar contingent to be added to the mix as well, our options suddenly look richer and more varied.
We’re still not safe in Division One, of course, so the focus for now has to remain squarely on getting a result against Down next Sunday. But the manner of our win in Hyde Park did hint strongly that all this talk of a changing of the guard in the west is more than a little overcooked. Summer’s on the way and we finally appear to be rousing ourselves.

John Gunnigan (AKA Willie Joe) runs the Mayo GAA Blog.