Stephen Rochford: Defeat provides test of character for Mayo players

There is little recompense for victims of a perfectly staged ambush, and Mayo manager Stephen Rochford wasn’t looking for it either.

What Galway sprang on them in Castlebar on Saturday evening seemed as much a surprise to him as anyone else, only he’s the one left to explain it.

On that note he pointed justifiably at Thomas Flynn’s second-half goal, not just for the way it set Galway rolling, but also the way Mayo contributed to it.

“It certainly was a turning point,” he said. “We lost only two of our own kickouts, and we conceded 1-1 from them. At that stage, we were three or four points up, and in good control, but once we conceded that goal, Galway just got that second breath, kicked on, scored 1-5 without reply and we had no answer to that. And we will have to look at the video and try and answer those questions.”

Part of the answer also lies in the first half: “Yeah, 10 wides in the first half, that was disappointing, but the positive from that was we created 18 scoring chances.

“A couple of them would have been a bit disappointing in terms of shot selection from some of the lads, but overall in the first 50 or 55 minutes, in difficult conditions, we were playing reasonably well. Our execution could have been better but we were in control of the game.”

Accusation

Still, Rochford insisted he hadn’t looked past Galway, despite most people in Mayo already looking at a Connacht final.

“That accusation will be thrown at us now, that we had our eyes on something else, but that certainly wasn’t the case. And if you get yourself in position where you are 11-8 up, I don’t think the accusation can be made that your eyes weren’t on the game . . . Apart from the half-chance that Evan Regan had, we didn’t look like scoring the goal. Either did Galway, but they capitalised on a mistake.

“So of course they are down, and some of them will have never experienced a night like this in Connacht. But that is a test for them now, test of character. You know having got to know these guys over the last six months, I have no doubt that their shoulders will be broad enough to take that on, but we will only know more as the summer goes on.”