Mayo under 21 manager Michael Solan.
By Cian O'Connell
Following a gripping EirGrid All Ireland under 21 decider the celebrations were typically wild, but manager Michael Solan appeared to be the coolest Mayo person in Cusack Park.
Backed by a strong wind in the opening period Mayo trailed by three points as the interval approached before a 2-1 without reply haul in first half stoppage time altered the complexion dramatically.
"We felt we were doing a lot right, a lot of the stuff we had planned for," Solan reflected about the start. "We felt it was coming good for us, but unfortunately we just weren't finishing off the moves.
"We felt if we were to tighten up a little on our shot selection, on the areas we we were shooting from that we might have a bit more joy.
"The goals before half-time gave us a great cushion to try to push on a bit. Credit to Cork they pushed us all the way, the goals from the lads towards the end gave us a bit of breathing space."
After the restart Conor Loftus added a third Mayo goal as they pulled five points clear, but Cork came thundering back to draw level.
Was Solan worried? "I didn't feel it was slipping away at any stage to be honest.
"We felt the game was going to ebb and flow and that if we got our few minutes, if we got a steady supply of ball from the middle of the field, we felt we could do a bit of damage up front.
"At half-time we felt there were various avenues through the middle of the defence that we weren't exploiting as much as we should have done. Thankfully we were able to exploit them in the second half."
Loftus and Liam Irwin grabbed last gasp goals to seal a stunning victory for Mayo won also won the All Ireland minor title in 2013. "The minor was three years ago and there is about 50 per cent of the squad that is new on to this squad," Solan said.
"Some brilliant footballers have been unearthed in the past few years. You still have a lot of the minor squad from 2013, these boys have a great attitude, I'm going to say there is long careers ahead for them, hopefully long successful careers."
Mayo's previous difficulties in national finals was never an issue for Solan. "I think you take every game on its own merits," Solan remarked. "People talk about Mayo and finals.
"We didn't buy into that, I would never buy into that. Anything that happened in any other year gone by had zero relevance on what happened."
Cork boss Sean Hayes offered an honest appraisal following a dramatic contest. "We gave seven points in about three minutes, but I thought in fairness they battled back at the start of the second-half another team would have just dropped the head," Hayes said.
"They didn’t, they re-grouped and came again. They let in another goal and came back again.
"I thought when we drew level, my heart was up, I thought we were going to come out the other side but the two goals we let in, you are not going to come back from that with two minutes to go. So Mayo won, and that’s it. That’s life."
