‘We just have to put the head down and crack on’ – Kevin McStay offers no excuses for Mayo’s All-Ireland SFC setback against Cork

“We just have to put the head down and crack on. We’re not out of the championship and that’s what I’ll be saying to the boys now in a few minutes. It’s not where we wanted to be but let’s see what we’re made of now,” he said.

McStay raised his eyes to the heavens when asked what his reaction was to the team’s first loss in the All-Ireland series and their second in the 2023 championship – they were beaten by Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final.

“I am disappointed. We were coming down on the bus in a great position obviously but very aware of the danger and I mean that sincerely. I said that to anybody who would listen. These are not simple games,” he said.

“That old idea of what division you are in, and we draw a line, that’s over. So, we knew it was dangerous, but I would argue that we got into a great position around the third quarter when we got the six up. But we didn’t manage it and gave it away fairy quickly. I think that is the turning point.”

Asked why having got into a winning position in the 56th minute after substitute Tommy Conroy had scored a goal, Mayo effectively collapsed and failed to score during the final 20 minutes, McStay replied: “I am going to have a good think about that one because we dried up obviously.

"But it was a big play (the Cork penalty), It shouldn’t have been the decisive play, but it looks like it was, and we fell away from it.

“Cork really took a big buzz out of it especially as it was only a minute or two after we scored our one (the goal). It looked like the gap had been established and we were going to light up a bit. Instead, they came, and we never got a chance to manage the six point (lead).”

McStay said everybody on the bench was aware of the importance of Aidan O’Shea free deep in injury time. Had he pointed, Mayo would have clinched second place in the group on score difference.

Instead, Cork’s three-point winning margin meant they finished level on points and scoring difference with the Rebels but lost out because they scored less. Kerry’s big win over Louth meant they topped the group on scoring difference.

“It wasn’t to be,” said McStay.

“I mean it was a very dangerous free actually. It was kind of under-hit. If someone got a flick to it, it could’ve ended up anywhere. The point would’ve been a nice one but I’m not pointing the finger at anybody on that play.

"We had lots of other plays too. We’ve no cribs, lads. Cork on the day pushed harder than us in the last quarter and clipped us.”

“There was a big difference between two points and three points in winning the game!” laughed Cork manager John Cleary.

“All it does is takes us to another round. I think the big belief comes from beating a Division 1 team. We needed to do that and there were a lot of doubters there – and maybe we hadn’t done anything to deserve the plaudits.

“This is another little step on the journey and eventually we’d hope that Cork football would be getting into quarter-finals and semi-finals on a regular basis. But look, that’s a long way away yet. We’re delighted and we’ll move on to next week.”

Cleary conceded that he was concerned that Mayo would press on having scored their goal. However, he was confident his side wouldn’t die.

“I did feel, looking at the pitch, that Mayo was tiring a little bit and we got great impetus from the bench,” he said.

"Sometimes, when you’re that much up, you retreat a lot and I could see their line trying to get them up the field and there were holes there.

“In fairness, Colm O’Callaghan made a massive run for the penalty. We were only three points behind then and there were ten minutes left.

"We kept driving and we were hoping to get a draw or get over the line but the icing on the cake was to get a three-point win – maybe we’d have been heading up north next weekend if we didn’t get that.

“We’ll dust ourselves down now and next weekend will come fairly fast. Today won’t have any consequence to next week and we’ll park this now. We’ll look at it when we finish the season but now we’ll just get ready for next week again.”

The Cork bench contributed 1-7 of their total but Cleary was always emphasised the important of the overall squad.

“We’ve always been saying to the lads that it’s a panel group situation. We need fellas giving impetus and, the more I look at county games, if you have legs there in the last 15-20 minutes, it can mean an awful lot,” he said.