Photo: Mayo Mick
It’s a wet and miserable Monday morning and I’m afraid there’s nothing in the papers this morning to help lift the mood. All I can do, then, is gather them up into a heap for anyone who may be interested in deepening their gloom a bit further.
For those who are still unsure about that last-minute penalty award, the nationals aren’t all that helpful in illuminating what exactly happened. Cliona Foley in her report for the Irish Independent reckons that Mark Donnelly “was taken down”, Keith Duggan in the Irish Times says the Tyrone man “was bundled over by several Mayo men as he went to shoot” while Mike Finnerty in the Irish Examiner states that Donnelly “was held back as he pulled on the loose ball”. Despite these varying accounts of what they saw, none of these scribes cast any doubt on the validity of the decision by Maurice Deegan to award the penalty.
Mike is the only one who got a few post-match quotes from James Horan and the boss was typically forthright in his assessment of our performance yesterday:
We didn’t play smart today at all, in the entire game. We were too slow moving the ball from midfield, Tyrone were dropping guys back, and we played right into their hands for a large part of that game. You can’t play for ten minutes and expect to win a National League game. We didn’t deserve to win the game. We could have snatched it, but didn’t. We came up a Tyrone team that are going well. Usually we figure it out during a game but we didn’t at all today.
It’s difficult to argue with a single word of that. The key thing for James and his team now is to get to the bottom of why we performed the way we did yesterday and to do what’s necessary to ensure that we perform a whole load better when we face the Dubs at Croke Park in three weeks time. Otherwise we’re in for a rough ride that night.
Other match reports: Mayo Advertiser, GAA.ie, RTÉ, BBC, Hogan Stand, The Score, Breaking News. That’s more than enough to be getting on with, I reckon.
Seeing as opinion appears to be so divided on the penalty award and, at the risk of picking at the scab, I think it might be worth having a quick poll on the issue. Off with you now:
Was Maurice Deegan's decision to award Tyrone that last-minute penalty correct?
- Yes (55%, 54 Votes)
- No (45%, 45 Votes)
Total Voters: 99
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I thought it was a stone wall penalty.
Clarke went feet first for man and ball, and Keith Higgins tackled as just as the trigger was being pulled for a shot on goal (which is not allowed).
It was a great comeback, but the amount of costly mistakes made during the game was the losing of it. People should stop blaming referees.
Wj I think you should add a 3rd answer to the poll, “Don’t Know” ? I would be kind of in that boat, after seeing the replay a few times!
No fence-sitting on this one, Mick! To be fair to the ref, he had to make his mind up having only seen the incident once so it’s worthwhile putting everyone on the spot to see what the overall opinion is on it.
Mayo were poor yesterday, so blaming the ref is just a handy excuse. Played right into Tyrones hand and very slow ball. A O’Shea fielding was excellent IMO but at times he turns into trouble when better to just lay it off. Also should have a cynically fouled Cavanagh in the build up to the goal (although was on a yellow so ran the risk of red). Thought Freeman was quiet again and come championship Keegan will be back wing back, would like to see Gibbons/SOS tried at Centre Forward for Dublin game. Also yesterday showed just how poor Kerry are/were in the last two games…
No excuses ere now mayo fans and have only themselfs to blame n did,t deserve to take anything from game, if they had played like they did in last 10 min for half the game they woud,t have to worry bout the penalty which in my opinion was right decision,. alot of wrong options an by jesus this mayo team has alot to learn and i fear croker in few weeks….as for jason doherty i dont know wat the hell he,s kicking free,s off the ground whens he,s further out the field than closer to goal tha he takes from hand closer in ….dissapointed with him yesterday and when o, connor comes back he will be the free taker and it as simple as that, sos not doin it at midfield an dont know how cathal freeman made team yesterday, i think jam horan still learing the ropes in management and tha may be a costly 2 pts dropped at home yet before this league is over…….
[Comment deleted – House Rules 1 and 3 refer].
Too many mistakes as mentioned in previous comments and it was a stone faced penalty,
and the worst thing is, I had a 6 game acculualtor with Mayo in it,
wins for Clare, Dublin, Meath, Sligo, Kildare and Mayo which i thought was a banker let me down!!!
For the benifit of Johno,mo on tour:
You get far more distance off the ground than you do from the hands when taking a free kick. You especially get more distance from the ground against the wind (as Mayo were in the first half) as the trajectory of the ball is lower so it catches less wind, and hence much further distance.
You also might drop-kick the ball against the wind, to get further distance. Next time you see a player do it, take note. Its not always for show.
Cannot blame Deegan but his linesman missed a sly slap into the balls Od Doherty I think. Everyone on my side of the pitch saw it. I am aware what we write now might come back to haunt us or upset some of those close to the team but yesterday confirmed that we never learn anything.
Great team when the wind is in the sail but sake the question a different way and we are fucked. Tyrone have a fairly new team but with a plan. I haven’t a clue what ours is, balls kicked into the chest of Tyrone men, Keegan as a forward and McLoghlin wasted in the corner.
Yesterday only Keane and Boyle were up to scratch at the back. We gave away stupid fouls right in front of the ref and when two points from play is the forwards returns then at least we know what the problem is. We are now just two players short of our first 15, Moran and O Connor. I thought we were looking for new blood up front, instead we will shuffle what couldn’t crack last Septembers but.
Play your best players in their best positions, thus Keegan to 5, Vaughan if he back to 2011 form to 6. By the way he should have torn out the net on the run , not ruthless enough. We also missed handy frees and for the second time a player from Mayo had a free blocked down. The crowd roared that a Tyrone player was too close, the effing linesman heard them but had the thousand yard in place .
By the Brolly labelled us as tactical foul ers last season. Seems as if we are going to be choir boys this year, Stephen O Neill waltzed past his man yesterday, I know excuse given was that the marker was tired. So too was O Neill. He should have been stopped in his tracks.
Im not even going to bodder reading the match reports from various newspapers i know what there saying without having to read it. I agree with what has being said . For me though other than what has being said our forwards didn’t seem to put much effort into putting pressure on the Tyrone backs thus making it very easy for Tyrone to work the ball up the field to their Forwards. Far too often they done this and they got some great scores. It wasn’t until after Mayo got the goal that i saw the Mayo forwards putting on the Tyrone back line. And what happened? Mayo got a free because the Tyrone man didn’t release the ball in time. This is what we should have done right through the game. I believe if we had done this for the whole game even with all the other mistakes we could have won the game. When Mayo tried to build from the back it was too slow and constantly playing into trouble and then holding onto the ball too long. I thought in the early stages when Mayo put width on the ball it worked well and i would have liked to see a bit more of that. Will be interesting to see what the game plan will be for next game.
Mayo played for ten minutes and nearley won the game.Tyrone played their usual defensive game and heavy underfoot conditions probabley slowed down the game, which suited them .Tyrone were very strong in the tackle, they have big, powerful men down the middle, and they know how to use their power.
Our full forward line, once again were unable to win their own ball, hold it, and use it as they wished.
We have big strong good footballers on the line and why not use them .Jason Gibbons is a fine footballer and , in my opinion should get a run at centre half forward , he would help out mid field , he is very mobile, and can score as well.
When we beat Dublin in the league in Castlebar last year, we had Barry Moran at FF,
so playing our big men up the middle, would be worth a try. This way we would have players winning their own ball, and we would be playing our own game, not been dictated to, by the other team.
John I dont see how you claim that keane & boyle were the only backs up to scratch. I thought keane could have done better on that last ball.
I was not overly impressed with our win over Kerry and as other posters have mentioned already, we were pretty clue less in attack yesterday.
I actually think that our issues were in how we used the ball in the middle third of the field, we did well on short kick outs, had plenty clean catches and won plenty breaking ball. However, the number of times we lost the ball was just too high, is this because we have changed our half backs and half forwards since last year?
I would also like to see new players tried rather moving “pawns around the board”, is it that big of a deal if we do not make league semi finals? Need to try a new partner in midfield with AOS, his big bro is not that answer.
Very disappointing performance considering the amount of ball we won in the middle. Poor distribution and AOS is not Kieran McDonald when it comes to killer balls from the boot. He had a fantastic game but was drained at the end and missed a tackle on O’Neill. If fresh legs are needed they should be used. Look at the rugby when practically two teams used. JH needs to learn to act faster when fresh blood needed. We cannot afford to drop points at home as this puts additional pressure on the away games. All in all did not earn a win yesterday but when given the opportunity we need to be ruthless. The Tyrone system has been around a long time so no excuses there. We can still stay in Div 1 but it will be very tough.
It’s very clear from reading above comments, that a lot of players are not performing to their full potential. Fitness I’m thinking might be a problem at this stage as the holiday would have disrupted their early season training and rather than trying to many new guys, James is re-arranging the deck chairs in the hope of finding a spark that might ignite this team from it’s Winter slumber. Loyalty might be at play here too !
What disappointed me though, was the team didn’t appear to be prepared for the challenge Tyrone were obviously going to pose. Slow build ups, or short passing was never going to open their blanket defence, yet they persist with this ploy.
The danger here is that lads who had built up a strong team spirit during last years championship, suddenly through some poor performances, loose their confidence. Their next match against Dublin will be another big test, and if they want to get a result, then every player will have to stand up and be counted. Believe you me, this Dublin team is hell bent on avenging last years championship result and as a Mayo man living in Dublin for nearly 40 years, that’s the last thing I want to see happening.
A bit of that Tyrone style blanket defence, at least in the early stages, might not be a bad idea !!!
I would not be reading too much into League matches in February.
The encounter with Dublin in Croker in 3 weeks will be much more revealing.
The most important match is always your next one not your last.
It is disappointing that yet again a high ball into our goal area wasn’t defended properly.
We had plenty of defenders there & none of them punched the incoming ball clear.
It is also not wise for a goalkeeper to be leading with his feet.
Also of concern is that we have the same issues in central positions with only AOS up to scratch, no newcomers up front & a second half back line in the half forward line.
Our substitutions are coming too late to make sufficient difference.
We are still doing some things really well however so I don’t want to sound overly negative. We do need new personnel up front. Does anyone know if Pat Harte is around the panel anymore ? Is Kilcoyne gone off the radar ? Kirby or Coen worth a try?
I see James Kilcullen has given up the ghost & thrown his lot in with Sligo.
I guess we wont have long to wait now for the Mort to join whoever !
The next six months should be interesting.
(Please read.)
First of all I believe Tyrone were the better side yesterday in McHale Park. Mayo lacked something in the first 50minutes. good teams can win when they have not been at their best and mayo failed to do this yesterday when they were not at their best.James Horran was far too slow on the Touchline again all of the substitutions he made were the right ones but should have been made 10 minutes earlier. In the first half the ball was not going into our full forward line quickly and was overplayed. Too many handpasses . They proved they can score when they got the ball. Tyrone were given to much time to get numbers behind the the ball. We were very poor in midfield until barry came on. The O sheas were very poor and gave away alot of ball, The only reason we took over midfield is because they brought o neill out to midfield. Ruthless is a word used by Galway exile above me and i agree with him 100 per cent . We were not this. Aidan O shea should have pulled O neill down before Tyrone could put the ball into the Mayo full back line, we should of had alot more back and you can not blame the defender he had no chose but to make the tackle. Is it just me or does Stephen O Neill put the ball in that corner alot from the spot. Clake should have researched this. I believe we will stay up as I have faith in this mayo team. The problem is I dont see us beating Dublin and Cork away and donegal at home and it looks like we may have to win one of these games. We should be down in mcHale park and Kildare will be hard beat the form they are in. >>Mayo Abu<<
James not making the substitutions on time again !!!
Looks like he has not learned anything. Worrying.
He has got to see the changes that are needed a lot earlier.
Hello 2013
Was in McHale park very frustrating to watch blanket defese,especially to see REf reward same blanket with penalty in last seconds.What a wonderful display by Mayo to destroy same blanket in last ten minutes. Sure Mayo were poor through patches but lets not be too critical,this Mayo PANEL have great heart.i just hope officials appreciate what patrons come to see fast atttractive football.TYRONE slowed down the game by persistant fouling around Mayo half back line which went unpunished, had yellow cards being issued it would put an end to these tactics.It is in GAA interest that this type of gamesmanship be eradicated, otherwise dwindling crowds.One point on defense Mayo need to get players back inside penalty area when opposing team on attack,cheers bring on the dubs. SEAS SUISE MAIGHEO
Only two games into the League and my God how the mood has changed. A few weeks ago, some were on here talking up Mayo as the best team in the land and couldn’t wait to get stuck into the league. Yet last Sunday we were so close to achieving that perfect start, were it not for a moment of madness or lapse in concentration in those last 30 seconds.
Now the whole scene has changed, some big matches coming up, which we might struggle to get anything from, and suddenly we’re walking a tight rope, fighting to stay in division one. Were that to happen, our whole season could be turned up side down.
Could it come to that – hope not !!!
Hey WJ any plans to chew the fat(and wash it down!) after the Dublin game
I haven’t really thought about it yet, opt2misteek, but I’ll be heading back to base after the match (to deposit the small Dubs home) and will then need to spend a bit of time on the laptop so it could be late enough before I’d be in a position to head out, most likely locally. As I said, though, I still haven’t given the logistics of the evening too much thought at this stage.
No worries WJ.We’ll have to go to Cassidys to give Fran Ryder a bitta grief(hopefully we’ll have reason to!)
Love the site willie joe huge fan but as i remember last year you critzsed the infamous “WIND”for writing about drink and the “black stuff” . This has nothing to do with the game of football and yourself and opt2misteek should not be speaking about this. It is unfair what you get away with and not him.By the way where is the wind? he normally comes around this time year.Bring him back for the laugh. He lives for the craic.Tyrone used this match as a rehearsal for Donegal who they have up next, they believe that they should have beaten them in the ulster championship last year. They will want to beat them this year. Mayo were unfortunate and could have won the match. #Bring “WIND” back. P.S i am no relation of the wind and dont know him or her or it.
Love the site willie joe huge fan but as i remember last year you critzsed the infamous “WIND”for writing about drink and the “black stuff” . This has nothing to do with the game of football and yourself and opt2misteek should not be speaking about this. It is unfair what you get away with and not him.By the way where is the wind? he normally comes around this time year.Bring him back for the laugh. He lives for the craic.Tyrone used this match as a rehearsal for Donegal who they have up next, they believe that they should have beaten them in the ulster championship last year. They will want to beat them this year. Mayo were unfortunate and could have won the match. #Bring “WIND” back. P.S i am no relation of the wind and dont know him or her or it.
I was asked a straight question, Tommy (or is it Lobitin? I’m getting confused now), and I answered it. In any event, seeing as this is my site I think I’ll be the judge of what I’m allowed and not allowed to talk about here. The gent you mention is free to post here but not to litter the joint with all manner of off-topic nonsense, which was what happened last year and which became more and more juvenile and tiresome. I make no apologies for being the arbiter of what’s allowed and what isn’t as regards comments but I think the rules are clear and are applied as fairly as possible. There’s a thin line in the online world between freewheeling debate and a steep descent into complete bullshit (and the rest) and I’d like to think that the odd bit of comment moderation here and there is more than justified to keep the standard of debate on the right side of that particular line.
Watched game again on telly and dunno if it was a peno or not. Its irrelevant anyway as overall it was not what cost us the match. Instead it was a lackluster display over 60 odd minutes.
People have blamed JH (possibly justified considering the comment above) but there were a lot of other areas of fault as well.
It seems clear to me that there is an overall lack of leadership on the pitch and especially in the forwards. Now i know we’re missing Andy Moran but the simple fact is that he won’t be back until April at the earliest. In the meantime someone else is going to have to man up while he is not available.
Im talking here about someone who is just going to do the simple things (time after time) throughout the match. The hard grafter, the guy who is guaranteed to win 50% of those those dirty hopeless balls that and prone to land in over the top.
And after he wins them he makes the right decision to put someone in a better position (and possible better boots) to get the score. So in my mind he has to have strength, composure and selflessness for the overall team.
I didnt see the match so correct me if I’m wrong but, only two points from play, from our forwards? C’mon now..the dogs on the street could tell ya we’re not going anywhere this year with that output.
Surely! There are a couple of strong, classy forwards playing football in Mayo, and I’m not talking about recycling previous players. Seriously lads, I know it’s only Feb but we knew full well what Tyrone would bring, and looking ahead, what Dublin and Donegal will bring.
We may only have got two points from play from our forwards but Tyrone’s tactic of persistent fouling near their own posts – which presented to us eight tap-over frees – meant that the forwards were far from idle over the course of the match. It doesn’t matter how the scores come once they end up on the board.
I’m not sure I’d agree with the point about winning matches and confidence either, certainly not in relation to matches at this time of year. In both 2007 and again in 2010 (in particular the latter) we had great winning runs in the league only to collapse in a heap when the real action started later on. It’s also worth recalling that we had a few reality-checks last year – the fogbound half-match against Dublin and the thrashing by Donegal in Ballyshannon – following which there was plenty of despair about where we were headed. It was only after we pasted the Dubs (at the end of March) that things started to come together for us in 2012. It’s early days yet, in other words.
I couldnt give a monkeys uncle if we get relegated as long as we come out of this league and beat galway . that is my only goal for this year, if we attain it then we can build on it , if we dont then its qualifiers and no league position is going to console me then…
Between the lines, i may suggest jam. horan might hire you with immediate effect cause you have the free taking solved and doherty might take ur advice on board……lol…drop kick into the wind, a dinos. or wat, u want usm to go back to the 70,s…lol
Ignore the snide remarks WJ, as I know you will.We always have(in the main) insightful discussion on the site, as well as a sprinkling of banter-thats why I love it. If some people want “WINDY” discussion then they’ve turned their ass into the wrong field.Keep up the good work and dont change a thing.