Kevin McStay was delighted that his Mayo players kept top spot in their own hands as they held on to see off Louth in their All-Ireland SFC group clash at Castlebar.
The Green and Red started their campaign in the best possible fashion, seeing off defending champions Kerry on their own patch last month.
The challenge was to back it up and, despite Conall McKeever's well taken late goal for the Wee County, they achieved their objective.
Speaking on RTÉ's Sunday Sport, McStay suggested that some careless play nearly cost them.
"The two points was key, that's what was on offer - not a whole lot else - and we got them," he said
"I thought we got ourselves into a great position with 10 minutes to go but didn't manage it quite the way we wanted to. It was a massive effort by Louth to take the game from us, but we're very pleased with the points.
"We did feel that we were in control of the game but a late goal in injury time takes a lot of that control away from you. I'm very happy our boys stayed at it but what hurt our rhythm was that we fumbled a few balls [and] missed a few chances that we might have tidied up better.
"We've work to do now but we're still in the position we wanted to be coming out of the bank holiday."
Looking ahead to the final group game against Cork, a draw would be enough to guarantee Mayo first place and the direct route to the quarter final that goes with it.
"It's another two points until we get out of the round robin, but today we broke the back of it to a large extent; we're in a really good position.
"We're tipping away nicely. We're in a cluster of seven or eight teams that have their eyes on the prize and we're no different to anyone else.
"We're ambitious for the group so let's see where that takes us."
For Bevan Duffy, who was awarded player of the match despite ending up on the losing team, it was a chance missed for Louth.
They know a victory over Kerry in two weeks - a first since the 1950 All-Ireland semi-final - would guarantee them progress, and potentially see them finish second.
"We missed a few chances early on in the first half but then again we were happy enough with the scoreline the way the game was going," said Duffy.
"The plan was once it came to crunch time we'd make the call and press on and try to squeeze the game and finish it out.
"We just left it a little late. We got the goal, probably should have had another in the first half. These little key moments probably didn't go our way.
'We've got to stay here, we want to be here again'
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 4, 2023
Bevan Duffy says that Louth are desperate to stay in the championship when they play Kerry in two weeks #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/ZarjMXJ8aq
"If someone had have said to me a few years ago that you'd be in a group with Cork, Kerry and Mayo... not that long ago we were in a group with Antrim, Leitrim and Sligo.
"This is where you want to be playing football. The Louth support has been brilliant this year, they've really got behind us all and we've fed off that.
"It's been brilliant but we want to stay here, get here again, and get to a Leinster final again. We've got to step up those levels and it's as simple as that."
