Andy Moran was singing Kobe McDonald’s praises for the second weekend in-a-row after the teenager made another impressive contribution off the bench for Mayo.

While he didn’t reach the same heights as he did on his debut against Monaghan when he hit 1-4, McDonald’s latest cameo yielded two points off either foot, while he also set up Cian McHale for a crucial goal after Armagh threatened to overturn a nine-point half-time deficit in Castlebar.

“He had a huge impact on the game,” the Mayo manager said of the AFL-bound 18-year-old.

“He caught the first kickout, he set up the goal. He’s just an exceptional footballer.

“Look, we have him for the period of time we have him and he’s absolutely stone mad to play football. He was playing basketball and football in school up to about two weeks ago. He just wants to play. He wants to be part of it.”

Moran added: “I often said back in my own career, my career was going nowhere in terms of playing when I was 26, 27. Then you have Lee Keegan, Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor coming along nearly all in one burst and then we take off into our decade of competing. Sometimes these players come in a generation and sometimes you have to wait for them.

“So can we capitalise on it? Of course we can. I know ye filled plenty of headlines [with Kobe] this week on social media and in newspapers. Listen, when a guy comes along like that, it doesn’t happen too often.”

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