IT seems there’s something presently significant about the number three and the Mayo senior footballers.

For the third year in a row the team has qualified for the FBD League final and for the third consecutive year the team has remained unbeaten in the group stages.

Indeed such is the strength of the Mayo squad at present, the first three points and last three points of their third FBD League outing this season were scored by six men for whom those were their first points of 2012. Indeed of Mayo’s eight contributors to the scoreboard in Ballinlough last Sunday, all but one were on target for the first time this campaign. The odd man out? Conor Mortimer, he who has always tended to do things his own way anyway.

And once again his own way was quite spectacular, as for the second week in succession he struck six points, three from frees, from play from top of both left and right corners and one off the fist for good measure.

It helped the Green and Red to a victory over Roscommon slightly more convincing than the score-line would have you believe.

It was only in the final 10 minutes that the hosts made a real game of it, but even when a quick-fire goal and two points helped draw the Rossies level by the 57th minute, Mayo still had the wherewithal to manufacture the match-winning scores.

But with qualification to next Friday night’s FBD League final against NUI Galway already assured, more important than the result last Sunday was the seasonal reappearance of some big-name Mayo players. Last year’s All Star and Young Player of the Year respectively, Andy Moran and Cillian O’Connor, were both sprung early in the final quarter and it took Moran, recovered from a leg break, less than 30 seconds after his arrival to raise a white flag. O’Connor almost found the net five minutes later but his stubbed shot into the ground was toe-poked to safety by Roscommon goalkeeper Geoffrey Claffey.

And there was the welcome return also of team-captain Alan Dillon who after a typically industrious hour, completed the scoring with the point his performance more than warranted.

Other first starts of the year were handed to Chris Barrett, Richie Feeney, Jason Gibbons and Alan Freeman, and in all there were eight changes to the side that had so easily disposed of GMIT a week previous. Among the departed was Danny ‘Four Goal’ Kirby, busy on exam duty, and in his absence Mayo lost much of the goal threat he had carried against the students.

Still, had Conor Mortimer’s fisted effort not somehow been scrambled off the line by Roscommon defenders midway through the first half, then Mayo might have been out of sight at half-time. As it was, theirs was still a comfortable advantage as the locals had managed to score just two points for the entire opening 30 minutes. On another day Donie Shine might have doubled their tally, but the full-forward uncharacteristically pulled two frees wide of the near post, whereas the accuracy of Mayo at the opposite end was so superior that Alan Freeman kicked their only first wide, two minutes before the interval.

Points by Pat Harte, Alan Freeman and goalkeeper David Clarke, driving over a ‘45’, helped Mayo into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead before Ger Heneghan curled over his and Roscommon’s second point of the game, three minutes later.

But from there to the break it was all Mayo, and all Conor Mortimer, as he scored the remainder of their first half tally, the first two points from frees and second two the result of assists from full-forward Barry Moran and, of all people, corner-back Lee Keegan.

But the Green and Red’s performance thus far was not without fault, the most obvious being their tendency, sometimes after some quite exquisite approach play, to take five yards or one pass too much out of the move. Instead forwards would run into clusters of Roscommon men, Cathal Dinneen, Sean Purcell and Seanie McDermott included, who gladly forced their opponents to over-carry or overturn possession.

Still, even with Barry Moran offering an inviting target on the edge of the square, most of Mayo’s attacking was more care-fully thought out - and varied --than Roscommon’s which centred mainly on thumping long balls into Donie Shine. The hope however, that he or corner-forwards Ger Heneghan and Conor Devaney might profit was a forlorn one, so on top of their game were David Clarke, full-back Shane McHale and flanking him, Keith Higgins and Lee Keegan.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that it was only after Clarke and Higgins had left the fray that Roscommon struck the game’s only goal, when midfielder Kevin Higgins burst through in the 51st minute to hammer a shot past debutante ‘keeper Conor Campbell. Indeed only for McHale’s brave block three minutes later and Higgins could have had another, but as it was the Roscommon comeback was well and truly on.

Prior to that the teams had evenly shared 10 second half points, Mayo’s five scored by Seamus O’Shea, Alan Freeman, Conor Mortimer, a free and one brilliantly from play, and substitute Andy Moran. Twice the visitors had led by six points but singles by Darren McDermott, Donie Shine, two placed balls and one from play, and Kevin Higgins, prior to Higgins shaking the net, left Mayo’s lead more precarious, at 0-12 to 1-7, with less than 10 minutes left to play.

Des Newton’s team were on a roll. John Rogers narrowed the gap further from a free and when Cillian O’Connor missed his goal chance at the other end, the game was levelled by Shine who drilled over his second ‘45’ of the game.

For all their earlier dominance, Mayo were in danger of being turned over by a side heretofore winless in the competition, and Enda Kenny’s last-ditch bid for goal very nearly ensured that. But where his stabbed shot rolled outside the post, 59th and 60th minute points by Barry Moran and Alan Dillon, with assists from Pat Harte and Jason Gibbons, were enough to see Mayo over the line.



SCORERS – Mayo: Conor Mortimer 0-6 (3f), Alan Freeman 0-2, Pat Harte, David Clarke (‘45), Seamus O’Shea, Andy Moran, Barry Moran and Alan Dillon 0-1 each.

Roscommon: Kevin Higgins 1-1, Donie Shine 0-4 (2 ‘45s, 1f), Ger Heneghan 0-2, Darren McDermott and John Rogers (f) 0-1 each.



MAYO: David Clarke; Keith Higgins, Shane McHale, Lee Keegan; Richie Feeney, Donal Vaughan, Chris Barrett; Seamus O’Shea, Jason Gibbons; Kevin McLoughlin, Alan Dillon, Pat Harte; Alan Freeman, Barry Moran, Conor Mortimer. Subs: Conor Campbell (for Clarke ht), Alan Feeney and Michael Walsh (for Vaughan and Higgins 36), Andy Moran and Cillian O’Connor (for Mortimer and McLoughlin 49).



ROSCOMMON: Geoffrey Claffey; Sean McDermott, Jack Sharkey, Sean Purcell; Conor Daly, Cathal Dineen, Michael Higgins; Michael Finneran, Kevin Higgins; John Rogers, Enda Kenny, Darren McDermott; Conor Devaney, Donie Shine, Ger Heneghan. Subs: Scott Oates (for McDermott 50), Derek Rogers and Matt Scally (for Daly and Devaney 57).



REF: Ray McBrien (Leitrim)