Mayo manager Kevin McStay has warned the squad's fringe players that they can't continue to fumble their chance to impress after Sunday’s shock FBD League quarter-final loss to London.
The Exiles responded well to Cillian O’Connor’s second-half goal to record their first-ever win over Mayo as they prevailed 0-12 to 1-08 at the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome.
Even with O’Connor’s introduction from the bench, it was very much an experimental Mayo side that featured and McStay told RTÉ Sport that the loss could be a black mark against them as they prepare to finalise their squad for their upcoming Division 1 league campaign.
"They’ve learned it’s a tough game, I’m sure of that," he said of the new players given an opportunity to catch the eye.
"It’s not easy to get scores at this level, the sort of defensive structures you’re up against is pretty, pretty tough.
"Also, the opportunities don’t go on forever. This was a big chance for them, we’ll have to go back now during the week and see who really measured up and who didn’t and that’s how ruthless this bloody game is unfortunately.
"We’re going to have to make some decisions in the next couple of weeks now to get ready for the National League panel; today will be a big part of it."
Despite the loss, McStay said it was a very worthwhile outing for his side and he hopes it focusses minds ahead of their league opener away to Galway on 28 January.
"It ended up a really good workout for us because we couldn’t shake them off. So it was a game, a competitive game from start to finish and even after Cillian’s goal, I was saying 'well now, we have them shook off, we’ll open the gap a bit’ but they came back again.
"So the guys we wanted to get a look at in a competitive environment, we certainly got a good look at them.
"The result is disappointing, I’m not going to hide [that], we would have liked to have been involved next weekend, that’s not to be now.
"There’s an up and a down - you're out of the competition but we’re more focused now, we haven’t a plethora of games next weekend to try and manage, we can clearly focus now on what’s ahead of us in the National League."
London manager Michael Maher said the result was just the tonic for a confidence-sapping 2023 season that saw them end the season without a competitive victory.
"We’re over the moon. We’ve had a big reset in terms of the panel. We had a tough year last year and we just spoke about it there, we didn’t win a game last year and it’s tough and you question why sometimes.
"You go back to the grind, November, December, doing the sessions in the wind and the rain, and when you get a positive performance and result like that, you realise why you’re doing it; you play for that 15 seconds after the game.
"We’re delighted but it’s only a start. Ultimately we want wins in Division 4 and further down the line."
A semi-final with Roscommon awaits on Saturday and Maher said they will enter the game confident that they can back up their Mayo performance.
"We go out to win every game, we’ll go out to beat Galway in the Connacht championship and we’ll go out to beat the opponents in whichever competition we end up in in championship football.
"We approach each game differently because each game brings its different challenges, but we approach each game to win."
