Lee Keegan has admitted he provoked Diarmuid Connolly into getting sent off in the recent drawn All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

TV replays showed the Mayo defender wrestling Connolly to the ground before the Dublin player struck him. Keegan escaped with a yellow card, but Connolly was issued with a straight red, which was rescinded by the Disputes Resolution Authority on the eve of last Saturday's replay.

"Diarmuid is obviously one of their best players - I'm going to try to stop him any way I can to win the game for Mayo," the Westport man said after receiving the Opel GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for August.

"We haven't won an All-Ireland in a long time and we've been told before we're a bit of a soft touch. So the reality is that if I'm marking one of their best players, I need to stop him at all will.

"Just a few minutes before I had been pushed over myself. So I was kind of a small bit provoked myself. But that's not something you'd try to think about on the pitch too often because you need to hold your head as well.

"Unfortunately, I was sent off in last year's semi-final for something I thought was nothing at the time. Again, I can't blame the referee for his decision, he's only making it in a split second."

Keegan claimed all the top teams are prepared to break the rules to gain an advantage.

"There's no point being a soft touch and I don't think Dublin were innocent themselves, if you look at the first game, they had a lot of incidents themselves," he continued.

"All the top teams have their black arts, that's what you're looking at I suppose. Even Kerry have it, they did last year with us, so you need to have a bit of a streetwise mentality about yourself.

"If you're going to win the All-Ireland you have to have these actions. Unfortunately, they mightn't be the best viewing at times but if you're going to win a game you have to win it at all costs for your team."

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