Keith Higgins glad Mayo have another shot at Dublin

"I still don't think we played well on Sunday, to be honest with you," Keith Higgins said after having a full night and day to reflect on that harum-scarum drawn All-Ireland final. This was on the Monday night after the first match and Higgins looked none the worse for wear despite the gruelling encounter.

“We probably played all right in some patches. The performance isn’t as good as what we’d expect it to be and it hasn’t hit the heights we think it can hit. Even the Tipperary game, we probably only played well for 20 minutes so again it’s just a matter of trying to improve the areas we let ourselves down in on Sunday.”

By now, both Dublin and Mayo have long finished sifting through the fragments of their encounter and have finalised their plans for Saturday's novel and fascinating replay. One of the abiding themes to emerge from the drawn game is that Mayo, despite shipping two own goals and despite coming within 30 seconds of losing the match, had somehow let a priceless opportunity slip through their fingers.

Higgins nods when asked about that period in the second half, when Mayo had completed their storming comeback and were trading scores with Dublin, both teams level. This, surely, was the time for Mayo make the day their own.

‘Let it slip’

“There were definitely chances there, whether I’d use the term that we let it slip . . . when Alan (Dillon) got the point to draw level you are obviously thinking ‘we could win this’. It sounds boring but you have to get yourself out of that mind because if you start thinking about that next thing they’ll come down the pitch and they’ll have a goal in the back of the net. So you have to get yourself out of that frame of mind and thinking ‘right, let’s get the next ball here’.

“Both teams are thinking the exact same thing but you just have to think about getting the next ball, trying to get the next score and if they had got the next one that stage you just have to go again.”

The response contains the abiding approach to that drawn match by both teams. It was cagey and anxious. Dublin edged into their three-point lead in the last five minutes of normal time but those scores didn’t come about as a result of all-out attacking aggression: they were sufficiently composed to make the most of the breaks. And having already conceded two goals despite a generally excellent defensive performance, Mayo were adamant that they didn’t want to concede another.

Lowering their goals-conceded average has been a key priority for Mayo this year, even if it has curtailed their so-called swashbuckling instinct. Under Stephen Rochford, there may be less "swash" but, crucially, there has been damn all "buckle" either. And maybe that newfound inherent caution informed the mindset of the Mayo side in that critical period.

“You kind of cope between trying to go claw it out to get the winning point, or kind of leave yourself exposed if you do that, like. There’s probably a bit of both but I think you kind of think there’s no point trying to change anything and you keep going trying to do the same thing that got you that score to level it, to try and do the same thing to get you the score to win it if that makes sense. You pretty much just have to keep doing the same thing really because if you go all-out for it they’ll have the ball in the back of the net.”

One of the enduring images of the Ballyhaunis man this summer was his theft of a Tipperary possession in the All-Ireland semi-final and the startling acceleration through the centre of their defence to set up the defining goal.

We saw little of that from Higgins or Lee Keegan or Colm Boyle against Dublin. Minding house was the first duty. Whether the Mayo management encourage their flying defenders to play with a little more calculated risk on Saturday could have a major bearing on Mayo's final score tally.

In his column in The Irish Times, Darragh Ó Sé not unreasonably suggested that the weather could again have a major say on the pattern and quality of the game, leaning towards a Mayo victory if the evening turns wet. A slippery surface may not suit Dublin's fast-game but it doesn't suit natural fliers like Higgins either.

‘Same conditions’

“It is a funny kind of a surface,” he says of Croke Park. “When it is dry it is the best in the country alright, but when it is wet the fact that it is such a hard surface the top of it gets very greasy. That isn’t going to change between now and the next day. It could be the exact same conditions the next day, I don’t think anything I say will change what Croke Park do about the pitch. Again it is one of them things you just have to adapt to.”

The immediate task was for all of the players involved was adapting to the idea of another All-Ireland final. You spend a year – and sometimes a career – working towards the idea of playing in these games. To feature in two within a fortnight is a bit of a head wreck.

“Yeah, you don’t know how to think coming off the pitch. Whether you are disappointed you didn’t win or relieved to have another chance. It’s a bit of a mixture really.

‘How to react’

“That evening when you are meeting the family and friends you don’t know how to react but the more you sit down you think ‘yeah, we have another shot at it here’.”

Higgins watched Mayo’s last All-Ireland final replay as a 12-year-old in the Nally Stand. “You are just thinking the whole thing is great: the ground and crowd and whatever else. But I don’t actually remember much from it to be honest.”

That 20-year-old game – another departure into the twilight zone for Mayo football – will rattle around in the minds of supporters old enough to recall it. Last year’s semi-final replay defeat to Dublin is of more relevance.

Yes, Mayo lost it. But they had their chance to win. They would settle for that on Saturday evening under lights and back themselves to go and win it.