You play like bloodhounds for 35 minutes, shut down so many big-name players and still go in at half-time five points down.
One would forgive the Mayo players for asking ‘What the hell just happened?’ as they reassembled in their dressing room.
2-3 to 0-5 they trailed and Dublin’s two goals had been scored by Mayo men. Surely Dublin – cold, hard bastards that they are – would knock some heads together and get themselves started in the second-half?
As it was, Mayo stormed back into the game and eventually pulled level only to let Dublin off the hook again. In the end, Cillian O’Connor was required to level the game after 76 minutes of ferociously play.
Speaking to Colm Parkinson, for The GAA Hour, after the 2-9 to 0-15 draw, Mayo midfielder Séamus O’Shea revealed the mentality of his team at the turnaround. He said:
“There was no major panic, really.
“I have to look at it back but I thought we had the balance of play in the first half but them goals… yeah, they were bad giveaways. I was at fault for one of them. I left them in behind me and they got a goal out of it. I can’t remember the second one, to be honest, but they were two soft goals.
“On the balance of play, we were going quite well. [The goals] just killed us.
“But there was no major panic. Just keep going and keep doing what we were doing.”
Those sentiments were shared by Mayo half-back Lee Keegan, who told Parkinson that the half-time talk was about ‘keeping our heads’.
Lee Keegan squares up to Paul Flynn.O’Shea bristled at the suggestion that this Mayo team drops their heads when the going gets extremely tough.
The goals, he insisted, were put to one side as the team spoke about upping the second half ante. O’Shea commented:
“You can win games when you concede goals and when you don’t concede goals you can lose games. It doesn’t make a difference.
“We had opportunities to win the game even though we conceded two goals. I’m sure people will talk about it and it is certainly something we need to brush up on. Hopefully we’ll do better the next time.”
O’Shea says he was delighted when the board showed their would be seven minutes extra time being played. It meant his teammates kept calm and chased down the three-point deficit.
“I don’t know how it’s a surprise that we were competitive,” he remarked, “but we were 3/1 underdogs supposedly.”
The full interview with Séamus O’Shea starts from 18:00. Listen below or subscribe here on iTunes.
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