Stephen Rochford rues first half as ‘passive’ Mayo bow out of the championship

Mayo boss Stephen Rochford felt his side were too passive in the opening half as they lost out by a point to Donegal, knocking them out of the All-Ireland Championship as they finished bottom of Group 1.

Mayo had a man advantage for nearly 14 minutes in the first half as Peadar Mogan received a black card and while they were 0-3 to 0-1 down before it and soon went 0-4 to 0-3 up, there were no more scores after this until the St Naul’s man eventually got back on.

But the former Donegal coach admitted that was a part of the game which let them down.

“Yeah, look, we weren't the best version of ourselves in that first half. We were just a little bit passive. We didn't take the ball to it. I think, as you touched on those early phases, I think Darren McHale was getting in behind. David McBrien was getting in behind their outer defensive line, and we just seemed to stop doing that. We weren't just looking to take that outer line out of it, maybe with a pass. There were opportunities for us to do that.

“And then we probably took a couple of shots, dropped shorts, some wide. There's a tendency then to say, oh God, we need to get better shots. It's all a cocktail of sorts of hesitation.

“We just spoke at half-time about, look, we're going to take the game from them a bit more. It was going to be a little bit more of a challenge, obviously, with the wind. You're probably looking at small margins coming down there.

“We had a couple of goal chances. I know they had a goal chance as well, obviously, off that kick-out. But, look, that's just the way the Championship goes these days.”

It was looking good for Mayo as Fergal Boland’s point with 15 seconds to play meant they would go through in third place.

A draw would have seen both sides through but Donegal had one last attack and Ciaran Moore won the match to send the Westerners out.

But Rochford didn’t expect the ball to be kicked out of play and felt his side were still hungry to win the final kick out and win the game.

“I actually was looking at the clock and was saying ‘is he (Shaun Patton) going to get the ball out’ before the hooter, but he did. And we're out of the Championship. There's no other way to put it.

 “I mean, we were sort of half hoping it was a two-pointer. As I said, the clock has gone into, I think it was about 55, 56 seconds, 69:56 seconds when Shaun takes a kick out. And if the ball breaks and you win it, you're actually looking to get the winner.

“That's just the way these teams look at it. I don't think either team would have been happy with a draw. And we certainly came into this with no view other than we wanted to win the game.

“But I think if we had had an opportunity to kick a two-pointer to win the game or draw, we would have looked for the win. That was our ultimate focus.

“They're tight games. If you're not ahead on the final whistle, I'll speak the obvious here, you're nowhere.”