Mayo will get the goals when it matters – Horan

Although Mayo's goal-scoring record in the National Football League was poor – they managed only two – at last night's Mayo GAA board championship launch in the Breaffy Hotel Resort in Castlebar manager James Horan was concentrating on the 24 chances they created.

Horan said the team’s goal scoring form could be compared to footballers in the Premiership who often go for weeks without goals.

"We have not been scoring goals but like some of the top soccer players when they find their touch then the goals begin to flow and we will be hoping that will happen for us in this year's championship.

Lot of chances
"We created a lot of chances but our execution has been poor but we have been working on that, amongst other aspects of our game," he said.

The manager also gave the strongest hint so far that Andy Moran could be involved in the May 19th meeting with Galway in Salthill when the Connacht champions begin the defence of their title and bid for the first three-in-a-row since the All-Ireland winning team of 1950 and 1951 who bagged four on the bounce.

Out for nine months since he picked up a cruciate injury in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Down last August, the Ballaghaderreen club man has been making steady progress.

“Andy is responding well and is taking part in full training and his name will be in the mix when I sit down to select the team on Tuesday but I will not be taking any gamble on his fitness,” he said.

Horan also hinted younger players, notably Evan Regan and Conor O’Shea, could feature in his plans as training was going well and a number of positions were negotiable.

The manager, who took his panel on a tough weekend training stint in Belmullet two weeks ago, is confident all injury problems will have cleared up for the championship, although Michael Conroy, who injured his shoulder in a club game is definitely out and a serious question mark hangs over Alan Dillon.

Horan is confident the team’s stint in Division One, where they qualified for the league semi-final, will stand them in good stead.