Second-half surge sends Moran’s men to victory

Senior Football Challenge 

Mayo 3-18 

Offaly 1-12 

Colm Gannon in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar 

The Andy Moran era, in front of the public at least, got off to a winning start on Sunday with a twelve points win over Offaly.

Moran was pleased with what he saw, saying after the game it was a “great workout”.

“I suppose what you are trying to do is to get running into the legs that you’ll be using at the end of January and then try to find a few (players) as well. He namechecked several, including the likes of Diarmuid Duffy, Seamus Howard, Darragh Beirne, Sean Mohan and Ballina Stephenites corner-back Liam Golden, who Moran said only joined the panel last Tuesday night.

“He played that well on Tuesday and Thursday, we put him straight into the team and I don’t think he let us down.” The net has been cast as far and wide as possible by Andy Moran to see what players might be out there and up to the task.

“I don’t know if the county board will let me [keep it] for too long, but we have a big panel in there and the county board have been really accommodating because when there’s 48 to 50 fellas here on a night, that’s tough as well.

“The advantage of getting the job early, is that you saw so many club games. We got to see Liam (Golden) a few times, I might have got to see Liam and I might have sent Paddy (Tally) and Colm (Boyle) down the week after. Obviously we knew about Darragh (Beirne) and Duff (Diarmuid Duffy), with Duff playing in the position he played today. We saw him doing a really good job against Moy Davitts from a positional sense but it just gave us time.” 

Five years to the weekend on from when they were lining out in the 2020 Covid All-Ireland final, both Tommy Conroy and Aidan O’Shea found the back of the net for Mayo in the first-half of this challenge game in aid of Mayo Cancer Support.

Andy Moran’s new look Mayo started off brightly with both Darragh Beirne and Conroy busy in the inside forward line. The first score of the day came from Michael Plunkett who swept the ball over the bar after being found by Beirne on the run. From the resulting kick-out Beirne won the ball and fed Conroy who had acres of space to finish low to the net.

Ciaran Murphy hit the visitors first score not long after before Beirne’s early efforts were rewarded by his first point of the day. Offaly landed the first two pointer of the day through Jordan Hayes to cut the gap back to two points, six minutes in. By the tenth minute the contest was level thanks to a brace of points inside sixty seconds from Offaly full-forward Harry Plunkett.

Mayo netted their second goal of the day through Aidan O’Shea who finished at the second attempt after his first palmed effort was saved by Sean O’Toole, when Conroy had done well to break past his man and find O’Shea close in on goal.

Offaly responded with points from Keith O’Neill and Plunkett before Paul Towey pushed Mayo into a 2-3 to 0-7 lead after 22 minutes. Not long after however, the guests rattled the back of Jack Livingstone’s net through Darragh Flynn, with the Ferbane man finishing well after being found by Murphy in behind the cover.

Keith O’Neill really should have got their second goal of the day seconds after, when Mayo got messed up on their kick-out, but O’Neill dragged his effort wide.

Ciaran Murphy did edge the Faithful County two clear with a minute left in normal time, but there was still time for Beirne and O’Shea to pull Mayo level while Enda Hession had an effort for a goal well saved by O’Toole. But the last say of the half was left to O’Neill who pointed to send his side into the dressing-room with a 1-9 to 2-5 advantage at the short whistle.

Cian MacHale made an instant impact when coming on as a half-time sub for Mayo, levelling the game up within seconds of the restart. Four minutes later Ryan O’Donoghue had his first impact after also coming on, pointing a free to edge Mayo in front. Not long after Darragh Beirne finished off a nice move that involved Towey and O’Donoghue.

It was another six minutes before another score came and it was Beirne again who pushed Mayo three clear, but it was back to a one point game within seconds when Jack McEvoy launched over a two pointer. On the 50 minute mark Andy Moran called Beirne ashore after an impressive showing by the Claremorris youngster who with his last act had nailed a two point free to push his side three to the good once more.

McHale then followed that up with two fine points in a row as the finishing line came into sight for both sides. James Carr and Paul Towey added points for the Green and Red before O’Donoghue rattled the back of the Offaly net for Mayo’s third time of the day, as both sides ran their benches.

Christmas dinner wasn’t far away but before they tucked into that, Mayo’s Adam Barrett, Bob Tuohy and Jordan Flynn got in on the scoring act to see out the win.

Scorers – Mayo: Darragh Beirne 0-1-4 (1tpf, 1f), Aidan O’Shea 1-0-1, Ryan O’Donoghue 1-0-1 (1f), Tommy Conroy 1-0-0, Cian McHale 0-0-3, Paul Towey 0-0-2), Michael Plunkett, Jordan Flynn, Bob Tuohy, Adam Barrett and James Carr 0-0-1 each.

Offaly: Harry Plunkett 0-0-4 (3f) Darragh Flynn 1-0-0, Jack McEvoy and Jordan Hayes 0-1-0 each, Keith O’Neill and Ciaran Murphy 0-0-2 each.

Mayo: Jack Livingstone; Enda Hession, Diarmuid Duffy, Liam Golden; Fenton Kelly, Sean Morahan, Michael Plunkett; Jordan Flynn, Bob Tuohy; Seamus Howard, Paul Towey, Nathan Moran; Darragh Beirne, Aidan O’Shea, Tommy Conroy. Subs: Ryan O’Donoghue (for O’Shea), Cian McHale (for Moran), James Carr (for Conroy), Adam Barrett (for Beirne), Stephen Coen (for Plunkett), Conal Dawson (for Kelly), Frank Irwin (for Towey), Dylan Thornton (for Howard).

Offaly: Sean O’Toole; Cathal Ryan, David Tierney, Lee Pearson; Shane O’Toole, Marcus Dalton, Rory Egan; Jack McEvoy, Eoin Dunne; Ciaran Murphy, Keith O’Neill, Jordan Hayes; Jack Bryant, Harry Plunkett, Darragh Flynn. Subs: Nathan Poland (for Bryant), Geordi O’Meara (for Plunkett), Robbie Gallagher (for Flynn), Harry Goulding (for O’Toole), Aaron Leavy (for Dunne), Adam Nugent (for Sean O’Toole).

REF: Liam Devenney (Mayo)