James Horan has expressed his disappointment at the fact that Mayo's All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay against Kerry won't be played in Croke Park.

GAA headquarters is unavailable next Saturday as it's due to host an American football match between University of Central Florida and Penn State in what is being billed as the 'Croke Park Classic', meaning Mayo and Kerry must head to the Gaelic Grounds for their eagerly-awaited rematch. But Horan would like to see the game deferred by a week so that it can be played at Jones' Road.

"I'd rather be up here, obviously. Limerick wouldn't be your preferred choice of venue but we'll do what we have to do," he said after today's absorbing 1-16 apiece draw.

Whatever about the replay venue choice, the Mayo manager had a lot to be pleased about after his players showed incredible character to come back to take a five-point lead after losing Lee Keegan to a 33rd minute red card and trailing by four points at the interval.

"We're delighted to get through it," he told RTE.

"We'll take  a huge amount from it - a man down, five points down a couple of minutes into the second half so we'll take a huge amount from that and we're looking forward to next weekend.

"We were excellent in the second half, there's no doubt about it, we were aggressive, we ran with the ball, we were positive in everything that we did, and when we do that we're a serious, serious team.

"First half was probably the complete opposite. We were tentative, holding off a little and didn't really go for it so that cost us a little bit but we're delighted to have another crack at it.

He added: "We probably should have won the game but equally could have lost it when I saw Bryan Sheehan lining up for that [free].

"There are serious leaders in that dressing room and every game we play they are taking over more and more. We just committed to leave everything we have out there with all the work and preparation and we've done that."

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