HE’S NOT BLAMING the referee, but James Horan was not happy with Lee Keegan’s sending off in yesterday’s All-Ireland semi-final draw with Kerry.
In fact the Mayo boss insists that he will “absolutely” be contesting the suspension, after Keegan was questionably sent off for what was deemed to be a kick by referee David Coldrick.
The Mayo defender was sent off during the first-half of yesterday’s game, but despite his team-mates trailing at half-time by four points, they still went on to earn a draw without him.
“I just had a look at it there on video,” explained the Connacht champion’s manger. “To me, it’s not a sending off. No way.
“The way I look at is, he was being held on to. It was like a shrug to shake him off more than a kicking action I would say.
“I’m not blaming the referee. You can see how it would have been seen. But to me, if we’re getting straight red cards for that, the game is going down.”
Mayo struggled in the first-half yesterday, even before going a man down, making their thrilling second-half performance all the more surprising. At one point in the final quarter Mayo led by five points, an amazing nine point turnaround in less than 20 minutes. So what did Horan say to trigger the response?
“We just knew we weren’t playing and we talked about what we were going to do in the second-half. It’s pretty much always calm in our dressing-room at half-time. We just went at it in the second-half and just played.
“(The second-half performance) was probably as good as any team has played. Fellas just stood up. It was exhilarating to watch to be honest. We had guys who weren’t just going to lose.
“We showed that we can rough and tumble it, so I am just looking forward to next weekend now.”
Horan believes that Mayo’s poor start was largely down to a change in tactics by Kerry, and once his team re-addressed the situation he was delighted with their performance.
“The Kerry set-up – we were a bit in no man’s land with one or two of the things that they did. It took us a while to figure that out.
“Michael Geaney was getting a lot of ball in the first-half. But we sorted that out. Sometimes, when you’re not playing the game that you play, you can be thinking about it too much and get caught out. That seemed to happen to us a little in the first-half.
“But I thought we were excellent in the second-half. We drove on and played the game that we’re always trying to look to play, an attacking based game with high tempo and a huge skill set. When we do that we’re a dangerous team.
“In the first half we were a little bit tentative. We were slow, running into tackles, trying to hand pass the ball and loop it over guys – we were just off it a little bit. And it could have cost us.
“The display in the second half was great to see. The leadership shown by the guys was just terrific.”
Despite Mayo’s heroic comeback, Kerry very nearly stole it at the end thanks largely to the introduction of Kieran Donaghy. Shortly after the big full-forward entered the fray, Mayo full-back Ger Cafferkey was replaced, but according to Horan he will be fit for the replay.
“Just both his calves were very tight. He couldn’t really run so we put Kevin Keane on for him.”
Donaghy won two crucial high balls during his run out in the final ten minutes, with one of which he set up James O’Donoghue’s goal.
“If you look at one of those balls, there was two of us on David Moran when he kicked in that ball so it shouldn’t have gone in. So that’s where we should have cut it out there; right on the sideline.
“It was just a hopeful ball in. We should have been able to block that one out.”
As for Kerry’s goalscorer James O’Donoghue, a scorer of 1-3 despite not reaching the heights of previous performances, Horan is more than happy with the display of his defenders in marshalling the vastly talented marksman.
“Keith Higgins’ performance in the second-half, yeah James got in for a goal, but the tackle and strength he showed, I think he won that battle.
