EVERYONE has a soft spot for Mayo. At least they should have following their 1-13 to 2-6 quarter-final defeat of reigning All-Ireland Champions Cork before a disappointing attendance of 22,732 at Croke Park on Sunday.
At times, the Western county are capable of extraordinary things. Last Sunday was one of those occasions, a match which saw Mayo recovered from a disastrous start to eventually overrun the their highly-rated rivals.
No one, apart from Mayo, saw it coming. Cork, after all, had demolished Down by 2-20 to 0-14 the previous weekend in a repeat of last year's All-Ireland final.
Mayo, for their part, had only got past London in their first match after extra-time. Nor did many pundits believe that their most recent performance in beating Roscommon by 0-13 to 0-11 in the Connacht final was much of an effort.
They were, Mayo manager James Horan agues, quite wrong. It was, Horan suggests, a decent contest played in appalling conditions which made good football virtually impossible.
Mayo's tremendous performance in beating Cork has given substance to his argument, as, indeed, did Roscommon's very creditable effort against Tyrone the previous day. The truth is that Mayo are a much underrated team.
Of course, this has all happened before. On the last occasion, the Mayo side produced one of the great comebacks to defeat Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final in 2006 only to flop disastrously against Kerry in the final.
On this occasion, they have only reached a semi-final, with Kerry again the opponents. And there can be no doubt that the Kingdom will be strong favorites to advance.
But there's real hope that Mayo will give it a right go this time. Manager Horan has instilled a huge work ethic and a sense of belief in his team.
How else could they have survived a start which saw Cork go 1-4 to 0-1 clear in the opening 15 minutes of Sunday's quarter-final? Game over, you would have thought.
Maybe that was one of Cork's problems. Although minus some of their top players because of injuries, notably Daniel Goulding, the Cork side looked set to stroll through to another confrontation with their archrivals Kerry.
Somehow, however, this game was to change dramatically with Kevin McLoughlin cutting through a static Cork defense for a beautifully taken goal. No bother, thought the Rebel county, as they responded almost immediately with a goal from Paul Kerrigan to make it 2-4 to 1-3 by the 25th minute.
Little could they, or anyone else for that matter, have believed they would only score two more points for the remainder of the game. Part of it was of their own making, they used too many hand passes and were too slow in their build-up, but most of the credit must go to the Mayo defense.
As Horan put it afterwards, they outworked Cork. Every member of the Mayo team did their bit was Cork were put under real pressure.
By half-time, Mayo were just two points, 2-5 to 1-6 behind and Cork knew they were in a match. But little did they appreciate that they would manage just one point in the second half.
Mayo, by contrast, were getting better as the game progressed. They were now winning the breaking ball with Andy Moran spreading panic in the Cork defense.
Importantly, they have discovered a top class free-taker in young Cillian O'Connor. He landed five and also put over an excellent point from play.
Horan also used his bench to good effect, while his opposite number Conor Counihan seemed at loss to know what to do. To be fair, Counihan was entitled to expect better from his team, especially when the normally accurate Fintan Goold curled a shot wide when put clear in the 56th minute.
Had he scored, Cork just might have recovered. As it was, Mayo absolutely dominated the second half to the extent that they outscored the All-Ireland champions by seven points to one in that period.
Although he only secured one of their points, Moran was, quire rightly, named man of the match. But this was very much a huge squad effort, with substitutes Jason Doherty, Peadar Gardiner and Ronan McGerrity also doing their bit.
By the finish, Cork had been run ragged, their attacks carrying little threat. Donncha O'Connor, having expertly put away an early penalty, was provided with no real service.
While Counihan will come in for some criticism for a failure to rectify matters, no one could question his attitude after the match. At no stage did he try and make excuses, preferring instead to give Mayo their due.
"Mayo showed tremendous drive." Counihan insisted. "Don't take away from their performance at all because they drove at us.
"Today is about what Mayo achieved and it isn't about us making excuses for our defeat. Well done to them, I wouldn't take anything away from them.
"You can turn players on and off. We came up against a different type of fight today in terms of Mayo and we just weren't at the races," he said.
Horan simply gets more impressive the more you listen to him. Sensibly, he didn't go overboard after they nearly lost to London in the opening round of the Connacht Championship in the knowledge that his team would get a lot better.
They have. "We're delighted with the win," commented Horan. "Our aim today was to come up and play as hard as we can and work as hard as we could.
"Fortunately, we outworked and outfought the opposition and that was the bedrock of the game. We were a bit shellshocked in the first 15 minutes, but once we sorted that out, I think we dominated the rest of the game."
Kerry, Donegal through to semis
IF Dublin can beat Tyrone in the remaining quarter-final, all of the provincial champions will have made it though to the last four of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Traditionally, the long lay-off has told against the provincial champions but that certainly didn't bother Mayo against Cork. Nor, it seems, was it a great problem for Donegal who defeated Kildare by 1-12 to 0-14 after extra-time in the most dramatic of quarter-finals at Croke Park last Saturday.
At the finish, you were left to admire the way Donegal had hit back in extra-time to secure victory with a magnificent long range point by Kevin Cassidy from almost the last kick of the game. But you were also left to sympathize with a Kildare team which seems cursed with bad luck.
They were deprived a perfectly good goal from Tomas O'Connor in the 40th minute. Had it stood, Kildare would have led by 1-6 to 0-3, a big lead in what was a very tight match.
To be honest, the first half was poor, giving little indication of the drama to come. Two brilliantly organized defences were on top but the game was to burst to life in the second period.
Kildare needed a 73rd minute free from Eoghan O'Flaherty to bring the game into extra-time. But, when Emmet Bolton sent over a point to leave them three ahead in the added period, the Lilywhites seemed on the way into the semi-final.
But it was Donegal who finished the stronger as Kildare ran out of gas. Two points from Michael Murphy reduced the deficit before Christy Toye landed the equalizer with the game already into injury time.
The stage was then set for Cassidy to send over the winning point which sends Donegal though to a semi-final meeting with either Dublin or Tyrone.
Needless to say, Kildare boss Kieran McGeeney was devastated, most especially by the decision to deny O'Connor what would have been a crucial goal. It always seems to happen to Kildare.
But, like it or not, Kildare are out, and Donegal must be given great credit for the way they came back to snatch victory in extra-time. That delighed manager Jim McGuinness no end but he wasn't pleased with some of the Kildare comments in the media before the match.
When Michael Murphy failed to start because of injury, McGuinness had reason to feel even more disappointed. But the Donegal skipper came off the bench after 26 minutes to play a massive part in the game.
Murphy commented: "It's amazing what a few painkillers can do. We're coached to keep going until the final whistle."
So, no doubt, are Kerry but they had their quarter-final against Limerick well in hand from an early stage. Eventually, the Kingdom finished 1-20 to 0-10 clear to qualify for a semi-final meeting with Mayo.
The highlight was a 26th minute goal from Darran O'Sullivan that would have done Lionel Messi credit. O'Sullivan, who once had a trial with QPR, flicked the ball in with his heel after the intended pass had gone behind him.
Unfortunately, O'Sullivan had to depart with a leg injury after 26 minutes. By then, he had scored 1-3 and was the game's most exciting performer.
In reality though, the game was no real test for Kerry as they jogged to the most comprehensive of victories. "We played well enough in spurts but we were a bit rusty," argued manager Jack O'Connor.
The remaining weekend encounter saw Tyrone get the better of Roscommon by 3-19 to 1-14 in round four of the qualifiers. But the final scoreline doesn't tell the story of a very creditable Roscommon performance.
They played really well for most of the match, only to run out of steam. Crucially, Tyrone had much the stronger bench with the likes of Brian Dooher and Owen Mulligan coming on for the second half.
The victory again showed that Tyrone are improving with every game. Sean Cavanagh was their star man, contributing 2-3 in a fine performance.
Manager Mickey Harte paid credit to Roscommon, stating: "I'd describe it as flattering because in no way did Roscommon deserved to be beaten by that amount."
