Spillane: Mayo badly lacking scoring power

Pat Spillane says that Mayo remain badly short of scoring power in the forwards even after getting back to winning ways last weekend.

Six weeks after their one-point loss to Galway in the Connacht championship opener, Mayo returned to action in an awkward Round 1 qualifier clash against Monaghan in Castlebar.

After a sluggish start, Mayo rustled up 1-03 in the wake of Conor McManus' black card, establishing a lead which they never relinquished, eventually winning a scrappy encounter by four points.

While they have a history of gathering momentum in the qualifiers, notably in both 2016 and 2017, Spillane didn't see evidence that an All-Ireland title is in the 2022 crop.

"I wasn't that impressed by Mayo," Spillane told the RTÉ GAA podcast. "Yes, they won and they deservedly won. Is there real lasting in this Mayo team? I don't think so.

"I look at the forwards and I look at their scoring return. I don't see it. The starting six got two points last week. An awful lot was made (on Sky Sports) of their shooting efficiency in their first half.

"It was 10 shots, eight scores. You say, 'yeah that's very good' but then I realised out of those eight scores, there was only three from play. And how much did the forwards score? They got one point from play in the first half. Ten shots at goal from a team that was dominating isn't great."

In mitigation, Mayo were without All-Star attacker Ryan O'Donoghue, with Tommy Conroy already ruled out for the season. Cillian O'Connor, meanwhile, is still feeling his way back to form after missing the entirety of the 2021 campaign.

On Saturday, they face Kildare in a repeat of the famous Newbridge or Nowhere game in 2018 - albeit in a different venue this time. The Lilywhites may still be shell-shocked