After three defeats on the trot in as many weeks and Dublin and Kerry next up over the forthcoming two weekends, it could be easy for people to think that it's panic stations in the Mayo camp. But after Sunday's latest defeat, Mayo Manager James Horan wasn't for hitting the panic button, just yet. “Ah no, a lot of the stuff we are doing it right and we just have to keep working at it. The master plan doesn’t change just because of a few defeats – if you start to change it then panic sets in. We know what we’re trying to do, it’s a bumpy road but we’ll keep at it.”
However when pressed on whether he felt his side had let two points slip through their fingers, he recognised that this was a chance lost by his side to make sure they are playing division one football next season. “We gave away a couple of hand-passes near the end and that’s what killed us – simple skills execution at key teams. When we needed to hold onto the ball we panicked a little bit. That costs you, which it probably should at this level. We’ll just have to get at it next week.” The failure to close out the game from an advantageous position will worry many and Horan acknowledged that fact “Yeah, and we didn’t. There were a couple of things we didn’t do like we should have – we should have kicked on a little bit more, we gave the ball away at key times in absolutely crazy situations. That cost us ultimately.”
But with two games to go he's still positive of Mayo's chances of being in the top table of league football next year. “We’d obviously like to stay in Division 1 and that’s still the aim. It’s still within our own hands.”
Horan was also questioned about discipline in the panel and were there any players suspended from the panel for off field incidents, Horan's response was “We had a match day 26 today and an open panel all the time.”
