“We were probably lucky. The bounce of the ball went our way and not Monaghan’s.”

Lucky or not, James Horan and Mayo have a league final date with Kerry to look forward to.

“I think, talking to a lot of neutrals and talking to the Mayo people as well, they were the first people to say to me ‘the referee gave us an awful lot today’. I don’t know, I’d always have a sort of a bias.”

The performance of referee Derek O’Mahoney came in for close scrutiny from Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke.

“The way we look at it, is it is an extra game and you can learn something every day you got out. So an extra game won’t go astray and any opportunity to get into Croke Park is great for the group.”

Peter Keane and the Kingdom will be out for revenge when they lock horns with Mayo following the round 6 defeat in Tralee.

“I’m disappointed for the lads. I’m disappointed for the supporters in particular because we got great support in this league. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to reward them.”

Division 2 beckons for Anthony Cunningham’s Roscommon charges in 2020.

“The league is over – seven games and eight points. At the start of the league we’d have taken that.”

It was a satisfactory league campaign for the Tribesmen as far as Kevin Walsh is concerned.

“They couldn’t be in the All-Ireland final a few short months ago and be as poor as some people would have suggested after three games.”

After losing the opening three rounds, Mickey Harte and the Red Hands finished strongly in the top flight.

“It’s been a good League for us. Our performances in general, we take some satisfaction from them. We’re probably averaging 17 or 18 points per game – a lot more than any teams out there – so that’s pleasing.”

Despite relinquishing their league crown, Jim Gavin was happy with how the league panned out for the Dubs.

“It will come right and we have to stay positive. It’s a huge learning curve, we will review the league next week.”

Gavin’s Cavan counterpart Mickey Graham hopes his team can learn from their seven games in Division 1.

“It’s nice to be going to Croke Park, it’s nice for the Meath supporters to be going to Croke Park but the bottom line was that promotion was the important thing.”

Andy McEntee and Meath achieved their number one objective this Spring.

“It’s nice to get back into Division One. That’s what we set out to achieve at the start of the year, to get back up with the big guys again.”

The same applies to Declan Bonner and Donegal.

“We were totally off-script. We need to look at where we’re at as a group.”

Kildare have work to do between now and the Championship, according to Cian O’Neill.

“We were dependent on other results and the fact we were in that position was our own fault.”

It’s Division 3 football for Ronan McCarthy and Cork next year.

“That was a cracking game of football. I know Cork and Tipperary are gone down, but they are well able to match any team in this division. It is just a real tight division. There is nothing between the teams.”

Colm Collins’ Clare side displayed great character to scrape over Tipperary and preserve their Division 2 status.

“We asked for a performance and they gave it. We want to perform well in Croke Park and move on to the Championship.”

Terry Hyland is looking forward to leading Leitrim out at GAA HQ in Saturday’s Division 4 decider against Derry.

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