Mayo 2-14
Sligo 0-11
Colm Gannon reports from Elverys MacHale Park
MAYO DID WHAT they were expected to do on the scoreboard and saw off the challenge of Sligo by nine points in the end in MacHale Park on Sunday evening, but it was a far from clinical performance from last year’s beaten All Ireland finalists.
With five minutes to go they were leading their northern neighbours by just three points, but over the remaining five minutes plus five more of injury time they hit a tiring Sligo for 1-4 to 0-1.
Mayo’s second goal put the game beyond doubt when Cillian O’Connor flicked the ball to the net from close range after a quick footed run by sub Conor Loftus. Further points were added on by Danny Kirby and Jason Doherty in that scoring run – after O’Connor’s goal, along with two more points for the Ballintubber man.
Sligo stuck with Mayo right up to the closing stages of this one with Adrian Marren and Mark Breheny accounting for six of Niall Carrew’s sides 11 points, while they were just a goal away from making Mayo really sweat in this game as it headed into it’s closing exchanges they never really looked like they were going to be able to put one past David Clarke.
Aidan O’Shea started the game on the bench and the Breaffy man came on for a ten minute cameo as a blood sub to replace Diarmuid O’Connor early in the second half. When the Ballintubber man was fit to come back on O’Shea got a two minute rest before he was brought back into the action to replace Andy Moran for the rest of the game.
Mayo went in leading by four points at the break, but the scoreboard flattered the home-side who put in a very lackluster opening half. Diarmuid O’Connor’s fantastic goal on 35 minutes gave them the cushion they would have hoped for going into the second half, but Sligo will have felt short changed by the 1-6 to 0-5 score on the board.
Sligo hit the front from the throw in with Stephen Coen firing over an impressive score inside the opening 20 seconds of the game. Mayo levelled it up two minutes later through a Cillian O’Connor free and less than a minute later Andy Moran hit a sublime effort to edge the home side in front for the first time.
The Yeats men hit back not long after with Coen landing his second of the day, this time with a fine effort of his left and from the resulting kick-out Sligo won possession back and Adrian Marren kicked his first point of the day to put Niall Carew’s men back into the lead. Marren had a chance to stretch that lead out a bit more, not long after but his effort dropped short of the target.
Mayo’s lack of a left footed free taker cost them on the ten minute mark when Kevin McLoughlin pulled what looked a simple enough close range effort wide on the near side, but the Knockmore man made up for it not long after with a well taken score after Andy Moran knocked the ball into his path.
Sligo were having plenty of possession, but they hit six wides in the opening half and dropped another two short and that cost them badly come the end of the half. They did go back in front through a Mark Breheny free on 11 minutes, but Mayo responded with a well taken point by Patrick Durcan and a Cillian O’Connor free ten minutes before the turn around. Marren did tie it up at five points apiece not long after O’Connor’s point, but they failed to score for the rest of the half with the Mayo captain kicking his third pointed free of the day on 33 minutes and two minutes later his brother barrelled through the Sligo defence to fire the ball under Aidan Devaney to send Mayo in leading 1-6 to 0-5 at the break.
Scores for Mayo: Cillian O’Connor (1-6, 5f), Diarmuid O’Connor (1-0), Andy Moran (0-2), Fergal Boland (0-2), Patrick Durcan (0-1), Kevin McLoughlin (0-1), Jason Doherty (0-1), Danny Kirby (0-1)
Scores for Sligo: Adrian Marren (0-4, 2f, 1 45), Mark Breheny (0-2, 2f), Stephen Coen (0-2), Aidan Devaney (0-1, 1f), Patrick O’Connor (0-1), Niall Murphy (0-1)
Mayo
1.David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites)
2.Chris Barrett (Belmullet)
3. Ger Cafferky (Ballina Stephenites)
4. Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis)
5. Colm Boyle (Davitts)
6. Lee Keegan (Westport)
7. Patrick Durcan ( Castlebar Mitchels)
8. Seamus O’Shea (Breaffy)
9. Tom Parsons (Charlestown)
10. Fergal Boland (Aghamore)
11. Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber)
12. Conor O’Shea (Breaffy)
13. Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore)
14. Cillian O’Connor (Ballintubber)
15. Andy Moran (Ballaghaderreen)
Subs: 23. Jason Doherty (Burrishoole) for McLoughlin, 22. Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy) for Diarmuid O’Connor (Blood Sub), 22. Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy) for Moran, 19. Donal Vaughan (Ballinrobe) for Conor O’Shea, 18 Stephen Coen (Hollymount/Carramore) for Colm Boyle, 26. Conor Loftus (Crossmolina) for Boland, 25. Danny Kirby (Castlebar Mitchels) for Seamus O’Shea
Sligo
1. Aidan Devaney (Calry/St.Joseph’s)
2. Ross Donavan (Eastern Harps)
3. Charlie Harrison (St.John’s)
4. Eoin McHugh (St.Molaise Gaels)
5. Keelan Cawley (Coolera Standhill)
6. Brendan Egan (St.Vincent’s)
7. John Kelly (Tourlestrane)
8. Paddy O’Connor (St.Farnan’s)
9. Adrian McIntyre (Tourlestrane)
10. Neil Ewing (Drumcliffe Rosses Point)
11. Mark Breheny (St.Mary’s)
12 Kyle Cawley (St.Mary’s)
13. Stephen Coen (St.Mary’s)
14 . Pat Hughes (Geevagh)
15 Adrian Marren (Curry)
Subs: 18. David Kelly (Tubbercurry) for Cawley, 24. Kevin McDonnell (Castleconnor) for Coen, 19. Niall Murphy (Coolera Standhill) for Hughes, 22. Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch (Curry) for McHugh, 17. Stephen Gilmartin (Tubbercurry) for Kelly, 20. Noel Gaughan (Tourlestrane)
Ref: Sean Hurson (Tyrone)
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
I’d love to see mayo win it out the really deserve it just have to keep the egos under control by the looks of things
@Jamie: sure you have no interest in gaelic football you continually slag it off on here.
@dead right: the only thing he slags off more than gaa is mayo gaa!
@Dec: and dublin bitter little cavan man
Ah boys yee are all in fierce bad form tonight
@Jamie: Mayo deserve nothing more than the pain they are suffering, they are somehow egotistical and arrogant dispite their constant failures. Dublin and Kerry will see to it that they fail again this year.
@dead right: And no true GAA fan could consiously support mayo. Dublin are disliked by some but have to be respected as Champions. Mayo on the other hand have no respect.
@SYM-Metal: jaysus paul scanlon would you have a night off. you get slagged off by everyone here, even those that aren’t mayo fans!! keep changing your handle but its obvious from how you talk. do us all a favour and write “i hate mayo” a hundred times on your bedroom wall and save us from having to read your muck on here. cheers lad
Mayo were absolutely brutal today. They are a serious team in decline. Outside of durkan and parsons not one would get in a Dublin or Kerry team. Unfortunately they had their chance. As a Dublin person it’s Kerry’s to lose
@Bill Clay: insert year here.
@Bill Clay: Stop commenting. You’re an embarrassment.
Yawn. If they had won by 30 points you’d no doubt be claiming “Typical Mayo. Peaking too early. Championships aren’t won in May or June”.
Tough game against galway next. But would love to beat the rossies in the final. I suppose paul scanlon has changed his name again
@stephen keane: He shut up as soon as Ross were relegated. Very peaceful :)
Cillian o Connor is the greatest waste of time….gloryhole if I ever see one
@Brian Shaw: Without the constant soft fees he gets, mayo wouldn’t score at all.
If Sligo weren’t so negative they could have taken them, seems like Sligo’s main ambition in this game was not to get slaughtered like they did two years ago.
@Tomas Rooney: You have to defend and attack to get anywhere, we’re just not good enough, but I’d have no issues with the game plan, your lines are taken directly from the gobs of O’Rourke and Spillane who are bags of wind, we played some decent stuff in the second half but Mayo have better players, don’t really see where the negativity was, we tried to work the ball up the field and were smart enough to get men defending when they needed them, Mayo were just better at taking there shots, some people want 30 headless chickens running around the field