After playing at five different grounds over the last five weekends, James Horan is glad to finally have some down time.
The All-Ireland hopefuls will rest up next weekend before the biggest game of their season to date, a home clash with Donegal on Saturday week.
The stakes couldn’t be much higher, with the winners securing a pass to the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Asked how vital the break is, Horan said: “I think it’s hugely important. The last five or six weeks we’ve just had one session a week, it’s really just maintenance in that scenario.
"There’s not a lot you can do. We were travelling non-stop and we were at both ends of the country. So it’s good now to be able to plan the lead in to a game.”
One imagines Horan will have plenty to say to his players in the coming week or so after flirting with a disastrous defeat for an hour.
He said: “The amount of turnovers we gave away was shocking at times.
“We kept plugging and kept fighting, like we’ve been doing all year. Our reward is a two-week lead into our next game so that will be good, that will also put a lot of players back into contention.
"It’ll be exciting to prepare for the next game, a home game in Castlebar.”
Aside from the turnovers, Mayo’s wasteful play in front of the posts was a source of frustration, in the first-half in particular.
Horan bristled when asked what his thoughts were about their low conversion rate in this period.
He said: “What do you think my thoughts were? It’s fairly straightforward, as I just said, the amount of turnovers we gave away, the amount of shots (that weren’t converted) weren’t great.”
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