Mayo should never again be accused of lacking bottle

Inside Sport with John McIntyre

The Mayo footballers blew virtually all the neat stereotyping about them out of the water in last Sunday’s pulsating All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry at Croke Park. Harshly reduced to 14 men and trailing by five points against their traditional nemesis early in the second half, the game looked over for James Horan’s soldiers.

In 23 previous championship clashes between the counties, Mayo had managed to get their heads in front on only four occasions, while in modern times Kerry inflicted All-Ireland final misery on the Connacht champions in 1997, 2004 and 2006. Against that background alone, their plight after James O’Donoghue stretched the Kingdom’s lead to five points in the 36th minute, appeared hopeless.

But with four years of unrelenting toil and progress on the line under Horan, the Mayo players looked deep into their souls to pull a thrilling encounter out of the fire. Their first half wariness was abandoned; they began carrying the fight to Kerry; and with several individuals literally soaring to the clouds in the team’s hour of greatest need; the match underwent a dramatic and unexpected transformation.

In the space of barely 30 minutes, they went from five points behind to five in front which was the product of players emptying themselves for the cause and throwing caution to the wind. Their human version of the Panzer tank, Aidan O’Shea, repeatedly won the hard ball and with Cillian O’Connor really tormenting the Kerry backs now, Mayo made light of their numerical disadvantage and stood on the brink of the county’s greatest triumph in living memory.

Leading by 1-16 to 0-14 after 66 minutes, they had Kerry on the ropes but a great match was still to throw up one final dramatic upheaval. The towering Kieran Donaghy had just been introduced and the former All Star made a significant contribution in dragging the Munster title holders to an unlikely draw. It was his mighty catch and perfect offload to O’Donoghue which led to their late goal before another reserve James O’Leary shot the equaliser in injury time.

Indeed, Kerry might have then snatched a winner, but that outcome would have represented the cruellest injustice on Mayo after the team’s second half heroism, especially considering the big hole they found themselves in at the interval. Having often been accused of mental frailties and lacking balls, they silenced their critics with a Trojan effort against the odds only to understandably run of steam in sight of the winning post.

Of course, huge credit must also be given to Kerry. They had wilted badly in the face of Mayo’s second half onslaught but still had the belief and quality to save their bacon in those concluding five minutes. It takes some team to do that and though Keith Higgins frustrated him on many occasions, O’Donoghue still came up with the critical score when the pressure was at its greatest. It was a thrilling climax to what was undoubtedly the football match of the year.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.