After a not your normal league opener in Newbridge on Sunday, Mayo captain Andy Moran was left scratching his head a bit, how exactly his team ended up loosing after kicking 2-18 over the 70 minutes. “I thought we did quite well to be honest, scoring 2-18 in a league game at the start of February, you'd expect to win to be honest, but it wasn't to be. We'd probably three chances to kill off the game and we never did. I think in the first half, we went 0-10 to 0-7 up and then they hit a purple patch and hit 1-3 or 1-4 that was vital in terms of the game. In the second half then we got goals and we went a head, then they went down and got a goal and went ahead. It was a very unusual game, usually in these games you see them ending up 1-8 to 1-9 or something like that” was his initial reaction to the game that had just unfolded.
As for the effect of losing Aidan O'Shea for a black card just before half-time, Moran thought the side dealt with that blow pretty well. “I don't think it effected us to be honest, we'd ten points hit when Aidan went off and and we hit 2-8 in the second half, you can't argue with that. I think we missed Aidan slightly defensively, more so than anything and that probably cost us slightly.”
Moran also went on to say that Mayo went looking for the win after leveling the game at the end of normal time and that adventurous decision cost them the draw. “You would be kinda confused coming off the pitch there slightly, you'd think after you leveled it up you'd have got the draw, if we'd consolidated after and went for the draw, you'd probably have come away with the point. But we went for the win, Kevin McLoughlin went in and won the break, they got four around him, it was actually a disadvantage to win the break which was unusual. But that's the way it is, we went for the win and unfortunately it didn't work out for us.”
