Mayo coach Paddy Tally says the Westerners’ form “was on the right lines” since their All-Ireland SFC Round 2A defeat to Tyrone in mid-June.

Niall Morgan’s late two-pointer in Omagh saw Andy Moran’s side slip to a narrow 0-22 to 1-18 defeat that day before going on to win their next four games, including Sunday’s final against Kerry at Croke Park where they wrote their names in the history books.

Speaking to BelfastLive.co.uk, Tally, who joined the Mayo set-up this season, said he was confident that this group of players was coming at the right time.

“No, I was actually more convinced,” said the former Derry boss when asked if the Tyrone defeat shook his belief in the team.

“I thought that was the first day that Mayo showed their teeth. You know that day against Tyrone was a really good game of football against a very good Tyrone team, and we probably could have won the game, come up a little bit short.

"But there's so many positives coming out of that performance. I thought, right, if that's the starting point now, and if they can keep building on that.”

He added: “We knew the team was coming at the right time. The form was on the right lines from really from the Tyrone game.

“You can see you can see Mayo getting better and I expected that performance today (against Kerry). I have no doubt that if the game was going down the stretch, we'd be able to hold it out.”

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