Horan 'very encouraged' by Mayo fightback

Mayo manager James Horan said he was "very encouraged" by his team's comeback and fighting spirit as they overcame a sluggish first half to salvage a draw in their Allianz League opener against Donegal at Markiewicz Park.

The game - ostensibly a home match but relocated to Sligo due to maintenance work on MacHale Park - appeared to have drifted well out of Mayo's reach after a poor first half, in which they fell 0-07 to 0-02 down in a low-scoring encounter.

The gap was still four in the second half when the home side fell to 14 men after Stephen Coen's sending-off and it could have been worse had Robbie Hennelly not repelled Paddy McBrearty's 51st-minute penalty.

However, points in the final ten minutes from Paddy Durcan, Jason Doherty, Ryan O'Donoghue then the afternoon's hero Hennelly rescued a draw.

As in last autumn's semi-final against Dublin, Horan asserted that Mayo's ratcheting up of pressure on the Donegal ball-carriers helped turn the tide.

"We started very tentatively, Donegal built up a strong lead. At half-time, we were four or five points down and we could have been a couple of goals down, Robbie Hennelly did very well for us in the first half," Horan told RTÉ Sport.

"Thankfully, we were in a position where we needed to, and could, drive forward. The guys worked incredibly hard, won a lot of turnovers. That gave us momentum and energy and rattled Donegal a little bit.

"It could have gone either way. Every time they attacked in the second half, they got some good long range points but we were the ones driving forward. We could have snuck it in the end.

"But we'll take a point today but lots of stuff that I'd be very encouraged by.

"The way Donegal were playing, they brought an extra few back and they were running