James Horan expressed his relief following Mayo's hard-fought All-Ireland SFC Qualifier win over Down in Newry.

The Westerners put the disappointment of their Connacht SFC semi-final loss to Roscommon behind them to win by five points, but it might have been a different story had Chris Barrett, Keith Higgins and Colm Boyle not prevented goals when only three points separated the sides in the closing stages.

"It was great to come up here and get the win. It was a tough game and we made a good few mistakes, but we did just enough to get through," the Mayo manager told RTÉ.

"We rode our luck a good bit in the second half. I thought we did well in the first half, and once we got the goal we just stood off them a little bit and they caused us problems.

"The couple of games they had recently probably helped. They were flowing early. We struggled with their running at times. They got a good few goal chances in the second half, but thankfully our last-ditch defending was strong and we got through.

"We're delighted to be in the draw for Monday."

Tweet

Most Read Stories