Hurlers bounce back Louth and clear from Rackard set-back

Nicky Rackard Cup – Round 3 

Mayo 3-22 

Louth 0-17 

Caoimhín Reilly in St Brigid’s Park, Dowdallshill 

Mayo bounced back from defeat in the hills of Donegal with a rocking good victory from yet another road trip, this time away to Louth on Saturday afternoon.

It was a win equally as convincing as when Mayo entertained the Wee County at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence during this season’s Allianz Hurling League, the caveat being however that local opinion was that this was Louth’s worst display of the season, with their winless run having now stretched to seven matches.

On the evidence of Saturday, Mayo remain serious contenders for the Nicky Rackard Cup this year, despite their set-back against the Tir Chonaill men the week before – but they’ll have learnt little from this outing, just like they didn’t when trouncing Monaghan in the opening round at MacHale Park.

But given Louth have operated alongside Mayo in Division 3A for the past two campaigns, they’ll be disappointed to have allowed Mayo have it as easy as they did at St Brigid’s Park.

There was no lack of effort by Trevor Hilliard’s men but the performance was devoid of quality, while their basic skill execution, particularly the passing and handling at times, was way short of the required standard – none of which will have been of any concern to Mayo, in particular their management duo of Ray Larkin and Brian Finn.

The precise nature of the inward deliveries by Mayo negated Louth’s use of Peter Fortune as a sweeper, with the dominance of the Green and Red based on their near total control of the middle-third of the pitch. The Louth backs, those in the full-back line especially, were the subject of almost relentless scrutiny and if truth be told, the losing margin – all of 14 points – looked set to be a lot wider when Cormac Phillips bagged two goals over four minutes either side of the hour-mark.

Louth, to their credit, dug in and did their score difference no harm with a flurry of points, three of which came from the hurley of substitute Dylan Carey.

Despite playing against the wind in the first-half, Mayo were already nine points in front by half-time, with Eoin Delaney bagging the goal as they led by 1-13 to 0-7. And with the aforementioned Phillips and Shane Boland in fine form after the restart, the visitors dished out the Wee county’s biggest defeat of this season’s championship to date.

Eight different players got on the scoresheet for Mayo during the opening period, including defenders Oisín Greally, David Kenny and Eoghan Collins as well as goalkeeper Bobby Douglas (their top scorer against Donegal!) from two placed balls.

Louth, as ever, were reliant on free-taking ace Darren Geoghegan for registers, although Stephen Kettle, Fortune and John Casey chipped in with points later in the half. But Mayo’s goal undid Louth’s good defensive work to that stage. It came on 24 minutes and saw Eoin Delaney collect the sliotar out in front, turn and take off from the 45-metre line, breaking into space and blazing a low shot to the corner of the net.

The hosts didn’t add to their tally until 20 minutes into the second half – through Kettle – but Mayo had already picked up where they left off with a half-a-dozen points, with Boland, two, Phillips, Eoghan Collins, Kenny Feeney (who was making his first appearance of the season) and Seán Regan all hitting over.

Phillips’ brace stretched the gap to 18 points (3-20 to 0-11) midway through the final quarter and though Louth found their range in the dying embers, they have a lot of improving to do if they are to retain their tier four status.

Scorers – Mayo: Cormac Phillips (0-4f, 0-1 ’65) 2-5, Shane Boland 0-5 (2f), Eoin Delaney 1-1, Bobby Douglas 0-3f, Eoghan Collins, Kenny Feeneyand Sean Regan 0-2 each, Oisin Greally and David Kenny 0-1 each.

Louth: Darren Geoghegan 0-5 (4f), Dylan Carey 0-3 (2f), Stephen Kettle, John Casey and Paddy Lynch (1f) 0-2 each, Peter Fortune, Aaron McGuinness-Smyth and Ricky McKeown 0-1 each.

Louth: Conor Clancy; Ronan Mulholland, Conor Quigley, Andrew Smyth; Aaron McGuinness-Smyth, Adam Plunkett, George Allen; Thomas McCreesh, Stephen Kettle; Sean Hodgins, Darren Geoghegan, Paddy Lynch; Peter Fortune, John Casey, Conor Murphy. Subs: Conor Higgins (for McCreesh 51), Cathal Ryan (for Hodgins 57), Dylan Carey (for Murphy 61), David Stephenson (for Casey 63), Ricky McKeown (for Geoghegan 64).

Mayo: Bobby Douglas; Conor Murray, Oisin Greally, David Kenny; Luke Connor, Conal Hession, Eoghan Collins; Sean Kenny, John Heraty; Liam Lavin, Adrian Phillips, Sean Regan, Shane Boland, Cormac Phillips, Eoin Delaney. Subs: Brendan Sheridan (for Delaney 46), Kenny Feeney (for A Phillips 46), Barry Lane (for Douglas 51), Sean Mulroy (for Hession 55), Shane Crinnigan (for S Kenny 63).

REF: Conor Daly (Kildare)