Stephen Rochford wants his Mayo team to be "tighter, slicker and smarter" when they contest their fourth All-Ireland final in six years next month.
The Connacht side will meet either Dublin or Tyrone, who clash tomorrow, after coming good to beat Kerry in their semi-final replay by 2-16 to 0-17.
This Mayo side know heartbreak as they have repeatedly fallen short of the big prize in recent years, including a replay defeat to Jim Gavin’s Dubs in last year’s decider.
"There was a couple of things that we didn’t do as well as we’d like but we did enough to win a game," Rochford told RTÉ Sport after the game.
"I thought we could have closed out the game better; we went seven or eight points up, conceded a goal chance when we were in control of the ball.
"We need to be tighter and slicker and smarter on the ball at times."
'We did enough to win a game' - Mayo boss Rochford reacts to reaching another All-Ireland final #rtegaa pic.twitter.com/DOlC8PLJTD
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) August 26, 2017
Asked about the pre-match build-up, which featured the theory that Mayo had blown their chances in last weekend’s drawn game, Rochford said: "We’re a tight bunch regardless of what people think or say.
"We knew with a six-day turnaround we had to be really focused on what we had to learn from our errors, and what we did well from last week.
"Obviously we will have to be different but [Dublin or Tyrone] will bring different conundrums to us. I’m sure we’ll face up to them.
"I think we’re physically in good shape. We need to look back at the tape and see where we can get better, where we can improve."
Rochford took a fair amount of stick for the tactical decisions he made during the drawn game, including sending Aidan O’Shea to full-back to mark Kieran Donaghy, who was dismissed for a strike on the Breaffy man in stoppage time.
Speaking about O’Shea’s second duel with Donaghy inside a week, he remarked: "Look, Aidan had a fine game, no doubt about that. I thought he played well the last day too - he sacrificed himself for the team."
