Butchered 2 or 3 very good goal chances, which if they took the chances would have put a totally different outlook on the outcome. Donegal were more clinical with their only goal chance in the 2nd half...they git at Donegal in the 2nd half when they moved the ball in quick...Donegal keeper had a mare with some kickouts in the 2nd half..

Hope Andy shows John Mahers goal for Galway last night against Kerry, to our forwards a 100 times, real power and determination and aggression and result a goal. That's what our players need big time.

Bob Tuohy the main positive.
Full forward line bottled up by tight defense.
Diarmuid rusty and it looking like paddy Durcan may not get back to his previous form.

Bit better in the 2nd half when Mayo raised their intensity a bit. But Donegal were only going through the motions with 20 minutes left to play. Don’t think we are in any danger of relegation but it probably showed we are still well off the top sides.

The key for us now is to start some young forwards now that Sigerson is finished. So far only Beirne has established himself- we need more forwards coming through. Look at Galway- they have brought some youngsters in to their forward line- and we need to do the same.

The likes of McHale have to start against Monaghan
Our forward play lacked creativity today- a return ti the ‘back and over’ stuff we are so used of.

If we want real progress under Moran this year the key is getting g new talent up front- it’s badly needed.

Yea. Tough day in the hills. The effort was there, I thought, from the luxury of my TV screen and the heating on, but nothing came off for them. I must admit , though , even if it`s only a league match in Feb. on a dirty day ..... it hurts when the opposition starts withdrawing their best players halfway through the second half. Job done.... Ouch!

Would Niall Carter be with a call up? Supposedly he is stronger than Michael Murphy!

Final Whistle pod is up now.

Nothing new today. Natural forwards take scoring opportunities instinctively. Too many of ours continuously miss and we put it down to "having-an-off-day'.
But I guess that's where we are at and no doubt they did their best.
Hope is what keeps us going.

Jr
Very hard to make that judgement on Paddy.It takes a long time to get back to top level after that injury and he is only about 60% through the build so to speak.
Remember Andy coming back after 2012 doesnt happen overnight and today was against Donegal upthere in shit conditions.
I think there are a few right good years in Paddy

Really disappointed with some of our ball handling and decision making. Totally out played and at times out muscled by Donegal. Need a bit more bite in our team if we are to be serious contenders for Connaught. Rossies got right in Armaghs faces .

The emotions in this blog are like a roller coaster. 1 good win and we are on the right track, 1 defeat we are in serious bother with alot to do.

If there was anything I’d take away today it would be a realisation that the lack of real pace in the half forward line with Rod, Flynn and Carney leaves that half forward line big target for flying opposition half backs.

I’ll continue my campaign too for natural forwards on the front 6. Darragh Beirne, Niall Hurley, Tom Lydon, Cian McHale, Finbar McLaughlin etc. it’s understandable to want physicality up there but not worth much when lads can’t kick ball over the bar. I said this two weeks ago, what happens if ROD is tied up. We need more natural link men

On the positives
1. I like the role Boland is playing. I think he’s getting on alot of ball which is good and he’s a very efficient user of the ball
2. Callinan and Tuohy still showing well which is a positive
3. Darragh Beirne has settled in like an old hand at senior level.
4. Loftus exciting with his direct running and power he’s developed with his physique

Great to get that baseline today

Not a good result and not a good performance. No need to be over critical of either Andy or the team. Donegal always difficult to beat early in the league as they make sure they have sufficient points before they ease up in later half of league. A good reality check for lots of people. For those expecting Andy to wave a magic wand and make all things good again it will take time . We were naive today kicking ball after ball into the forwards allowing Donegal to gobble it up and hit us on the counter. We were anything but naive v Donegal in The Hyde last year where we went man to man all over the field and minded possession when we had it. No doubt some won’t like to hear that as all things Andy are good and all things McStay were not. This is not a criticism of current management as I am pleased with Andy and co and they need time and patience. Today may stop some of us getting too carried away but of equal importance was watching our neighbours over the weekend. A seriously understrength Galway came from 10 down to draw in Kerry while Ross had excellent win v Armagh. But it’s only February We will get better Donegal are one of the top 3 teams in the country and the league doesn’t really have much consequence as regards championship. Lots of good young players plus young management and they need to be given breathing space

Mayo Exile... Hope is the last refuge of the doomed!

No harm in having the chance to settle expectations - surprised how upset a lot of the blog is. Kicking away possession in the first half felt like there was a clear instruction to go for it (maybe let the ball do some of the work with the breeze), and a couple of goal chances that could have tightened the scoreline up. If the main focus really is on doing well in Connacht I don't see what the fuss is about losing to Donegal in Donegal in the middle of a gale.

Don’t think anyone was getting carried away with the Galway win or beating a poor 14 man Dublin..
We will learn from today but that was a strong Mayo panel but we looked pretty ordinary at times ..
Let’s hope Boyler can instill some dark arts and Andy some cuteness.

I think Mayo need to be more ruthless up front. Somebody mentioned Maher's ( hot shot Hamish!) goal v Kerry last night. Beirne was through on goal twice I think, and on both occasions tried to dink the keeper. He really should have went down and picked up the ball and forced a penalty off keeper.

Tbh, I don't see Ryan as being the CF answer as he rarely makes telling passes. He's very much an individual player. It might be a better option to try D O'Connor here as he's lost in the middle of the park. It's by no means easy to sort, as top class CF qualities are rare. So, sometimes the only alternative option available is to go with brute force, to break up the play.

People saying beirne needs to be more clinical up front even though he’s gotten two goals already. 2 goals in three game is a good return. The reactionary comments of some on this blog is unbelievable.

I thought a lot of our play was excellent,we will do better

Darragh beirne a one man attack today and is the biggest find we have had in the league in years.....still only 19 and I thought that was the best game he's had in a mayo Jersey

I don’t think positional mistakes or systems were to blame for today’s defeat. We simply weren’t at the pitch of things from a physicality and intensity perspective. If you don’t have those two going up to Letterkenny then the rest of the things mentioned above won’t matter.

Our half forward got over ran but our “high block” didn’t work- we didn’t lay a hand on Donegal coming out of defence.
Hennelly was really good from the kick outs but when he went long we generally got beat for breaks especially in the first half. When Donegal let the foot off the gas we got a bit of a foothold there.

Hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and we will have bigger days to come. Lose to Monaghan next week and the conversation certainly changes from a league final to Division 2..
what a fickle world we live in.

@retrocut have watched Beirne for a few years now and he is the real deal.
What I like is his unselfishness - sometimes you would be thinking he could go for it more himself but he’s a real team player and a constant goal threat. Should have buried one today.

He will be gone to the 20s soon. No harm for Cian McHale to get a run of games in his place and have two top options in the number 13 jersey.

Ya alot of positives but look forward , integrate the sigerson lads , add the pace , bring in togerconrer backs in either of the castlebar men , morahan or McMonagle , Mchugh to 3 and we tighten up but with all respect to diamruid , he takes too much out of the ball , whatever hope we have , need to move it fast .
Add Dawson, Irwin and Mchale and have control in forwards add McLaughlin for raw pace and chaos but might be time to forget some of the older chaps .
I don't think Carr was that bad, he drop a ball which was short for him , he broke several tackles and then kicked short but bar that he didn't seem any worse than the rest .
Credit to Loftus , Boland and Paddy for presence off the bench also Diamruid duffy was tigerish when he came on

Monaghan won't be simple and their best line was our worst so work to be done there as won't be simple, kerry are kerry and rossies at home will be dog fight .
Plenty to learn but basis of a team and great additions in returns of Loftus and Paddy , plus bounce of sigerson lads so go, learnings today go fast and hard or go home

Roscommon look decent, wont be simple, didna job on Armagh today

We will learn from this it will be a much closer one the next time so don’t worry we are closer than that the lads will pick themselves up even the younger lads will so don’t worry 2 out of 3 wins is a very good start and we will be ready for the bigger tests

Donegal just popped back up there to number 1 favourites for all Ireland with paddy power they could well do it .

Disappointing day all round. Not just because of the result but the match itself being such a damp squib. Four scores in the first half. The second at 25 minutes. Mayo looked utterly clueless in attack. Could not make any inroads whatsoever which lead to us taking on no-hopers from around the 40m arc. Was a tough first half for Beirne and Carr. Donegal looked a lot further down the road physically and the players won nearly all their individual battles. Donegal's goal killed off the game as a contest. No harm to get a reality check at this time of the year. Lots of work to get through for the rest of the league and into the championship.

Jack Carney for me today was poor ,game passed him by.Would like to see Dawson or Kobe at 10 next week and a FF line of McHale , Beirne and Conroy.Yet to see him deliver against the top 2 or 3 teams

Willie Joe, that post you’ll be doing shortly: ‘Looking ahead to the Monaghan game’ Could we have it now please?

I just don't understand managers. It's not a complicated game but managers seem to think it is. Aido was meant to be in the ff line but he was out around midfield or in the backs and us playing with the wind in the first half. Mick O Dwyers main tactic was to get the ball in quickly. Simple kicking and save your energy for the second half against the wind. Kiss principle but are managers paid so much nowadays that they have to think outside the box. It's baffling.

Lots of off the ball stuff to Sam Calinan nearly had his jersey ripped off him !

@Catcol yeah good idea.

Never troubled Donegal, 0-14 a poor return in the new rules.

Jaysus, Catcol, give a man a chance! There’s the Monday match reports to sift through first but I get your drift, in that it’s now more productive for us to be looking ahead to Clones than it is to ruminate further on today.

Jesus people need to get a grip of themselves. It's the 15th Feb, Mayo have won 2 outta 3 league games, lost to a strong donegal team away today. Left 2 or even 3 goals behind us today, I'd be more worried if we didn't even create those opportunities. Other than the goal donegal scored, I can't think of another real chance or shot they had at our goal? Today just didn't go for us, got our tactics off a bit..Still a lot of ball to play this year and a lot of the players will be stronger and fitter come championship...it still a glass half full as far as I'm concerned.

With the new football rules- and we saw it last year as well - the days of playing 5 similar type midfielders is gone. Today we started Bob T, DOC, Jordan, Jack C and AOS - all similar type players who haven't the speed to run into space or go past a player when in possession. You could add James Carr to that as well. We need to play natural forwards up front - not converted midfielders. We need more pace n the team.

I really have to laugh sometimes reading the comments, there are people still using the old saying " we'll learn from this and move on " i'm sorry but would someone please enlighten me as to what any Mayo team has ever learned from a game and implemented in the following one. I have seen us doing the same silly things for nigh on 40 years now and nothing will ever convince me that a Mayo team will ever " learn from this and move on "

Badly missing Tommy C today I felt to . Hopefully he's back soon .

On a side note,I understand that the Jack Duggan that came on for Roscommon and set up the third goal,is a son of Derrick that got the famous free to draw a Connaught final.

Though the balls going into forward was general good, apart from Darragh Beirne very poor kick pass. But in fairness he been good so far in league. But seem to be a bar of soap from our forward. We be crying out for more long kick passes, but that means we need full forwards been our in front, and winning their fair share of 50/50 ball. Great to see Conor back, and did think he made a difference, when he came on

Now you can see what Andy has to work with, let's hope that brings an end to all the delusional talk

@glasagusdearg another one of those stock explanations for defeat that drives me insane is “we must be going through a heavy block of training”. I’ve heard it so many times over the years.

Reflecting back on today the expectation would have been with Donegal we would see aggressive attacking, moving the ball quickly, good hands and being clinical when in front of goal. Thats exactly what they did. McGuiness gives off the impression that one mistake by a player is unacceptable, the standards seem high.

I have to say if I was coaching AndyMoran on his media engagement, I would be encouraging him to be less glowing praise on opponent manager “we had a plan coming out here in the first half, Jim kind of took apart the plan”. I couldn’t imagine Sir Alex lavishing similar praise on Arsene Wenger back in the day

A couple of things
1.Its only February and no need to lose the run of ourselves.This reality check may be a blessing.
2.Sigerson/Schools and injuries may have forced Andys hand with regards selection.
3.The league is to get us ready for championship.
However it wasn't a good performance.
If any of our starting forwards were dropped for next week it wouldn't be a surprise.
I don't like playing converted midfielders in the forwards and with the new rules you need forwards in forward positions.
I made a point in a previous post that some of our more established players needed to seriously improve or they will be under pressure and nothing I've seen has changed my view on this.
Aido and Diarmuid should not be starting games for Mayo anymore.Good squad players but it's time to move on.Flynn and Carney still mix the brilliant with the anonymous.Ruane falls into this category too.
With Irwin Dawson Loftus Mchale x2 and maybe even Kobe looking for spots in the hf line no one should be a guaranteed starter.

Lots of talk about the forwards misfiring today and rightly so. But what about the backs? Gallen had scored 6 points by the 48th minute when he was taken off. Who was supposed to be marking him?. I have great time for Andy, but sometimes struggle to understand his analysis of games. After the Galway match he said McGreal was going great before he got injured. Today he mentioned Howard as having made a great contribution when introduced. Hard to understand!!

From watching Donegals previous matches I'm not one bit surprised by today's result.They're miles ahead of us fitness wise,power and scoring ability. Could be a a good reality check for us .Best to hope for this season is retaining our Division 1 status and a Connacht title which I'm not convinced about either looking at the rising challenges of Galway and Roscommon. Reaching the last eight might be a more realistic achievement. I can see Andy going out of favour with fans very quickly but we've seen it all before. Horan spoiled us.

Mayo supporters have to be patient with Andy moran. I really think he is doing a good job so far. But I would question why he is starting the older players in there mid thirties they were good players in there day but now with the new rules the game has gotten to fast for them they don't have the impact they once had in there younger days.which is understandable. If he is going to continue to start these players for the rest of the league and championshi then we won't win the
connacht championship or progress in the championship we need to blood more younger players and keep the older players like i have mentioned.as impact subs they would do a good job in the last 15 to 20 minutes in bringing there expedience to the team at important time in the game..

A few people have said this, but McStsy was obsessed with picking midfielders last year and yesterday was the same thing.
Put players in their natural positions or bench them.

Rory Brickenden - not an inter county full back

Enda Hession - not an intercontinental corner back. Way too loose a marker

Sam Callinan - looks a real player now he is in his best position

Donnacha McHugh - full back is the place for him

Fenton Kelly - his shot at the end tells you he isn't an intercounty wing back

Bob Touhy - much better in midfield

Diarmuid O’Connor - he was a great wing forward - if he hasn't the legs for that position, its the bench im afraid- he will never be an intercounty midfielder or ff

Jack Carney - not an intercounty midfielder, looks good as that fielding wingforward option - but its him or Flynn, not both

Ryan O’Donoghue - half forward experiment with pursuing- we need a baller who can fight for possession and he does that

Jordan Flynn - see above comments on Carney - we need a left footer with pace here

James Carr - the year off playing junior club football is showing

Aidan O’Shea - the race is run here. No pace or stamina, cant score. Its painful watching messing around with the ball, slowing everythingdown.

Subs:
Conor Loftus - definitely a half forward option
Paddy Durcan - not the pace of old - just pit him into centre back and build the defence around him

Fergal Boland - he isn't a corner forward that will worry an intercounty corner back at all.

a tough day in the Office but we did create 5 goal chances hopefully lessons learned for the upcoming championship our wing forwards found the going tough. May be time to give the up and coming players their head beginning to look like Father time has caught up with some of the older players. As I said earlier a tough day in the Office but the glass is definitely half full

If you were to read all these posts about how poor Mayo are and yet if it wasn't for a very avoidable goal they'd have won the second half by a point. Too much overreaction on here at times. I was pretty annoyed at halftime, more even tempered at full time and by the time I got home I'd put it in the "will count for nothing come Championship" bracket.
One gripe. With four away fixtures and three home could we not play home and away on alternate weekends. These road trips are getting harder as I get older.

@JoeG

Yeah good points. I wasn't to surprised at all by the result. It could have been alot worse . Donegal are always flying this time of year. No harm a reality check & keeping us grounded.

Jeze Trawleybaron tell us what you really think :)

I do agree with a lot of your points though. Fully agree on Carney/Flynn - one or the other for me. And DOC is a shadow of the player he used to be (he was sensational when he broke through but seems lost out there the last few years).

McHugh was absolutely scutched by Gallen yesterday, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt as he is normally very secure in defence (a lot of damage was done by the Donegal running game). Coyne held Gallen very well in the Hyde last year, while McHugh was doing a great job on Murphy.

Donegal did look excellent. But that relentless running game & relying on 80% shooting can't last. It will betray them on a big day. And we were so far off it (leggy, devoid of energy). I am hoping we put in some really heavy training sessions over last few weeks. Even Aido was getting outmuscled. Which was odd.

Great to see Conor Loftus back. And he looked damn good. A great option to have (especially from range).

Agree, take the goal out it much more respectable, and add first half performance with the wind, i wouldn't read to much into this game.

A lot of the usual "the opposition are fitter", "they're always flying this time of year", "we're in a heavy training block" type rhetoric that always seems to accompany a league loss

We're the ones with an expensive warm weather training camp abroad in the bank. Donegal had one of those last year but to my knowledge went nowhere this year. That was the "heavy training block" and that's where the fitness was built up that should have us the match or exceeding the fitness of any team at this stage

What we saw yesterday was a team that hasn't made a quarter final in years, away from home against one of the best teams in the country, one that looks very sure of its running gameplan.

I don't think any more needs to be read into it. 8 points is about the gulf in quality between the teams at the moment. Hopefully as the year goes on we can get more sure and comfortable of our gameplan and erode some of that gap. It won't be fitness that'll solve it though

Predicted team for Monaghan;

Hennelly
Coyne Brickenden Hession
Callinan Durcan Morahan
Loftus Touhy
Carney O'Donoghue Flynn
Beirne C. McHale Irwin

Stay in Division one is the aim.
The public eye now will be on Roscommon and Galway.
Plenty of players getting game time.
Monaghan should have beaten Dublin and will be difficult.
But Clones is a good pitch.
Our chance to ensure survival.

Result was probably predictable before the game but how we played wasn't. We looked very lethargic and the damage was irreparable after our first half performance.
I thought Robbie had a good game between the sticks but that went largely unnoticed. Callinan was good and Loftus was excellent when he came on. Our forwards simply did not click, and the number of wides we had was telling.
We were missing Stevie Coen (amongst others) and while I doubt he could have negated an 8 point margin I think we would have conceded less if he had been available. He brings a lot more to our game that many can't seem to see.
We will need to get the full 2 points against Monaghan next weekend otherwise the doomsayers will be out in even bigger force.

Tirawleybaron very good assesment you are spot on

Very poor yesterday, we never got going and looked like we were running in sand at times.

I wonder had we a big week of training done. At one point in the second half, Enda Hession ran back with the ball and "tagged" another Mayo defender in and he became one of the three men back. He needed a breather. The Mayo lads seemed to lack energy all day.

Yesterday's result showed we're not at that level yet but who is? Donegal much further down the road in terms of years (manager in his 3rd year) and in terms of the season - donegal look much faster and fitter than most. They probably need to be to win an incredibly competitive provincial but it's not sustainable throughout the year.

We saw a lot of the mistakes in games one and two pop up again here. This time though, we were up against a better team than Dublin and we got punished repeatedly.
It's not a bad result if we take the lessons from it. Very few lads put their hand up yesterday - thought Hennelly, Beirne, Loftus and Boland were the few bright spots on a very dull day.
Andy and Co have hopefully seen what ground we have to make up. It's not noted among the media but we're missing as many as any other team (we just hear more about it from other squads across the country). When we get a few more heads back, I think we'll be fine.
There isn't an All-Ireland in us this year but I'd be very optimistic about there being one with this setup in the coming years.
Not as good as it seems and not as bad as it seems - keep the faith and it'll be rewarded!

The commentator on TG4 wondered if Mayo had a heavy training session last week as he felt they looked
very tired. They certainly had none of the vigour and energy they showed in the previous two matches.

Haha @Roco88 that 'hard block of training' line that gets thrown out makes me laugh too, as if anyone could say that with any certainty. Its just grasping for an excuse. Heard a few others say 'this is a new team', aside from Beirne this is not a new team, the rest of the players seeing most game time are now firmly established players who have been there for several years

Just to balance some positives and negatives...

Positives
- the form of a few players remains strong. Lads like Touhy and Callinan are really kicking on and insisting on their spot. Beirne is probably leading the way for a starting ff jersey in championship at this point too
- clearly attempting to play more direct football albeit the execution particularly yesterday was way off
- loftus in the form he has shown last few years will take one of the wing forward spots
- ive been a critic but Hennelly is going well, thought he was quietly very good yesterday against the elements and a very strong donegal midfield
- cian mchales form very exciting at sigerson
- its early days in the season so can't make definitive conclusions on anything
- Kobe and cillian, 2 serious wildcards yet to llay

Negatives
- the older lads on the team really should no longer be shoo-ins, diarmuid and paddy aren't old but you wonder at what stage to worry about their form. They've had a tough time with injuries so you are hoping this is all part of the recovery process and they will be resembling their old selfs by champo
- Conroy a worry too. We haven't seen him anywhere near his 2021 peak, he needs to show he can stay fit and get his form back
- AoS absolutely cannot be starting in 2026, could use his leadership off the bench in closing out a lead with 20 mins to go but the last 2 games he was at his frustrating worst in wandering round the pitch picking up handy ball and slowing down play. If we are going to play this more direct game now we can't have him in ff as he doesn't score and his movement not good enough

....sorry about the essay above

Fair play to anyone who reads it all lol 😆

Any word on the injury front?
Mcbrien
Conroy
Ruane
D.Mchale

One of those missed goal chances in the second half would have got us back to 1 point deficit. Might just have been a different game if that had gone in but we were well beaten in all fairness.

We looked heavy legged alright. Some of the lads looked like they'd run all the way there.

Fair to say this was the first real test for the new management and unfortunately it was a fail rating to say the least.

MuGuinness decision to put Rorerty on ROD really hurt us considering the energy Finbarr brought to the game. Really took away RODs ability to play football.

Kicking game came under serious pressure too, not surprising giving the fact we are trying to adopt a new style of play but we need a middle 8 of very good kickers for it to work effectively. Not sure if we have that but Loftus was a big plus yesterday.

Not to disheartened with the result, Donegal best team in the country atm but plenty of work for us to do.

Roarty is some footballer for 19! Can do pretty much everything and an incredible amount of game intelligence for a young lad. He's like a mix of Lacey/Lee Keegan combined.

I found the game frustrating not because of the result but we made so many individual errors. But its the third league match , still in February and so on.
Positives for me are:
How well we competed on kickouts both for and against. Donegal are decent in this area.
Conor Loftus performance. Brought his club form to the inter County game. Big plus.
Paddy Durcan looked sharper.
DB continues to show his quality. And he has more in him. Probably heading back to U20's shortly. It will be interesting how they work it between both squads.

We blew the first half. Our forward line did not perform. Rod was poor by his high standards. Carney not at it. Flynn only ok. Doc not at it. Carr again kicking into the keeper and poor. Beirne ok. Loftus very good. Only rod and possibly beirne nailed on for championship. 4 places up for grabs. Boland only ok. The only man to put his hand up Loftus. Mcbrien a big loss. Donegal with championship team practically. February a good time to get a wake up call. We did beat a 14 man Dublin and half a galway team. Not really worried. Midfield is improving.

While Loftus played well, was he playing as a back or a forward?
I rate backs on defense first, attacking is a bonus.

Loftus is a half forward full stop. Not a defender. Not a midfielder. Brickenden is another lose marker also hessian at times