Mayo boss James Horan took encouragement from the way his side battled back to earn a 0-11 apiece draw with Donegal at Markievicz Park yesterday.

Having trailed for much of their Allianz League Division 1 opener, the Connacht champions battled back from four points down in the closing stages and snatched a share of the spoils thanks to goalkeeper Rob Hennelly’s free in the fourth minute of injury-time.

Speaking to RTE Sport afterwards, Horan paid tribute to Hennelly for his performance against the Tir Chonaill men with the Breaffy man also having saved a penalty from Paddy McBrearty in the 51st minute.

"We started very tentatively, Donegal built up a strong lead. At half-time, we were four or five points down and we could have been a couple of goals down, Robbie Hennelly did very well for us in the first-half.

"Thankfully, we were in a position where we needed to, and could, drive forward. The guys worked incredibly hard, won a lot of turnovers. That gave us momentum and energy and rattled Donegal a little bit.

"It could have gone either way. Every time they attacked in the second half, they got some good long range points but we were the ones driving forward. We could have snuck it in the end.

"But we'll take a point today but lots of stuff that I'd be very encouraged by.”

Tweet

Most Read Stories