“That was for Kevin, for all the grief he’s taken” – pure class from Roscommon hero

Kevin McStay has had his critics.

In fairness, most of it has been silly but it couldn't have been easy for the Roscommon manager hearing it coming from within the county. And, after redemption in the sweetest of forms on Sunday with a managerial masterclass that guided the Rossies to the Connacht title and the All-Ireland quarter-finals in one fell swoop of an underdog, there was one name on everyone's lips. https://twitter.com/EamonMcGee/status/884056494244864000 Back in February, the former Roscommon manager and goalkeeper chastised McStay, saying he does not like to see Mayo men on the sideline. It was ridiculous criticism but it was stinging nonetheless and garnered nationwide attention amidst a bad run for the Connacht outfit. On Sunday in Salthill, Kevin McStay showed that he had just quietly been going about his business, waiting to prove everybody wrong in time. And man of the match against Galway, Enda Smith, admitted to The GAA Hour that a lot of the performance was dedicated to their manager.

"Definitely, yeah," the midfielder said when asked if the players did it for McStay. "We're a very close-knit bunch and we had seen and read and heard all the stuff that had been said about Kevin - about him being a Mayo man and how could he manage a Roscommon team, a lot of rubbish like that. "We've massive respect for Kevin McStay and everything he's done for us. "We really did believe in him. I know a couple of players left throughout the league but that was just personal stuff, it wasn't anything to do with Kevin himself. It was just themselves not feeling like they were fitting into the team or just not going as well as they thought they would. It was nothing to do with Kevin. "We fully back Kevin and you saw it [against Galway], that was a massive performance and it was definitely, in a way, for Kevin for all the grief he's taken over the last five or six months."

Listen to the whole interview with the Roscommon man below from 19:50.