Stephen Rochford Makes Very Honest Admission After Disastrous Mayo Elimination

Mayo are out of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship after succumbing to a one-point loss against Donegal in Sunday's final round of group stage action.

Ultimately, it was Mayo's shock loss to Cavan earlier in the campaign that came back to bite them. Both sides finished level on two points apiece, but Stephen Rochford's men were eliminated on the head-to-head.

Billed as the clash of the weekend, nothing separated the might of Jim McGuinness's Donegal and Mayo for the best part of seventy minutes. It was everything one would want from a Championship classic, and was only won with the very last play of the game.

After battling relentlessly for over an hour, Mayo looked like they'd secured a place in the knockout stages with a 69th-minute point to level the affair, but Donegal took it right to the wire, returning the favour nearly instantly with a final point after the hooter to eliminate Mayo.

What drama! Donegal break Mayo hearts after the hooter - Cavan come third, the Green and Red are finished for 2025

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In reality, it was not a result born of Mayo's second-half showing, but of Donegal's superior first-half, which saw them head down the tunnel three points to the better, having played against a strong wind.

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On what was a chastening day, and possibly even the end of an era for Mayo football, interim boss Stephen Rochford carried himself impeccably after his side's loss, delivering a brutally honest interview to RTÉ.

Gracious in defeat and elimination, Rochford was in little doubt when asked if his side 'deserved more' from the group, very clearly admitting that his side simply hadn't delivered performances worth a place in the knockout stages.

When you play a league format you get what you deserve and over the course of three games the league table doesn't lie.

Analysing what went wrong for Mayo on Sunday, Rochford revealed he was disappointed with how the first half played out.

We didn't get to the pitch of it in the way we had hoped, much better in the second half, much crisper, brought the game to Donegal, but two good teams going at it you were never going to get a full 70 minutes.

Donegal will be happy with their full 70 minutes, but we'll probably reflect back and a more consistent approach probably would've given us something different.

'The league table doesn't lie'

Stephen Rochford was gutted to see Mayo exit the championship at the death against Donegal

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After what by their own standards was a premature end to the season, Rochford refused to be drawn on the more long-term consequences of Sunday's result.

The interim boss insisted that Kevin McStay, who was forced to step away from his role temporarily in May, was still in charge, and that a thorough review of the season would now have to take place.

Kevin McStay is still the manager of the Mayo team, I was standing in here on an interim basis, our season comes to an end and we'll review the year as appropriate.

Ultimately, it was a result whose consequences could spread well beyond the management team, with the future of several of the county's most experienced players still very much in the air.

For now however, Donegal will enjoy a home preliminary quarter-final while Mayo will have to face up to the realities of a summer without Gaelic Football.