Mayo are pushed to the wire by gritty Sligo

Connacht U20 Football Championship – Round 1 

Mayo 0-17 

Sligo 0-15 

Anthony Hennigan in Kilcoyne Park, Tubbercurry 

15 points had separated these counties last year but Sligo closed the gap dramatically and might consider themselves unfortunate not to have something more tangible to show from last Wednesday’s clash with Mayo in the opening round of the 2026 Connacht U20 Football Championship.

Sligo’s dead-ball specialist Eli Rooney had an opportunity to kick his side in front with only 90 seconds of second-half stoppage time left to play. However, despite a trio of two-point off-the-ground frees and in total, 11 points already to his name, this time the ball refused to curl inside the far right upright. Mayo midfielder Shane Cunningham’s magnificent fetch of the subsequent kickout set in train a move that ended with Darragh Beirne drilling over an insurance point for the Green and Red who were relieved with their two points victory.

Sligo had fought from six points behind in the first-half to draw level with 54 minutes on the clock, and it took the fingertips of Mayo goalkeeper Conor Meaney to deny Eamon O’Mahony from scoring a fourth quarter goal that could have asked some even harder questions of the visitors. And yet while the Green and Red undoubtedly left a lot of scope for improvement, an indication of their attacking threat lay in their outscoring of Sligo by 0-13 to 0-5 in open play.

As many as nine players who were centrally involved in Mayo’s run to last year’s All-Ireland U20 semi-final remain available for this season’s championship, and that’s not including Kobe McDonald who opted out of last year’s squad but lined out on Wednesday having started his first senior game for Mayo only four days earlier against Kerry.

McDonald featured in the middle of an all-Crossmolina Deel Rovers half-forward line and with Aaron Coggins starting at corner-back and Josh Moyles sprung from the bench, that one club had five players involved when just one from the whole of East Mayo – Swinford’s Thomas Tuffy – featured in the 24-man matchday squad, was as exceptional on Deel Rovers’ behalf as it seems damning on the nine club East division, which still only has only two players among the extended panel of 36. That, however, is a conversation for another day.

It was a somewhat tentative start to the match by Mayo who had just one point to their name, from a self-won Darragh Beirne free, by the time Oisin Deane lofted over from outside the arc to level matters at 0-3 apiece in the 14th minute – all of Sligo’s points thus far supplied by Eli Rooney, the son of ex-Leitrim player and former Sligo minor manager Aidan Rooney.

But Deane’s intervention sparked a sustained period of Mayo dominance which saw them add six quickfire singles, through Deane himself, Tom Lydon, two, Kobe McDonald, a ’45, James Lavelle and Darragh Beirne, establishing a 0-9 to 0-3 lead after 23 minutes.

The scoreboard might have read even better for Keith Higgins’ side but after taking a pass from team captain Colm Lynch and leaving Sligo full-back Patrick Brady floundering, Beirne’s vicious strike on goal drew an excellent save from goalkeeper Gareth Cummins which had resulted in that ’45 converted by McDonald.

Sligo full-forward Dara Mostyn spectacularly won Cian Nicholson’s high ball in, was fouled and knocked over the free, and while that was negated by Colm Lynch, Sligo ended the opening half hour impressively, with Rooney’s two point free and a single from Cian Nicholson reducing the margin to three points (0-10 to 0-7), which would have been less had Eamon O’Mahony not kicked a pair of frees wide in the closing minutes.

Sligo substitute Matthew Walsh raised the first white flag of the second-half, capitalising on an unfortunate slip by Mayo corner-back James Lavelle who was engaged in an intriguing duel with Rooney, but Mayo responded with four of the game’s next five points.

Tom Lydon and Shane Cunningham, the latter’s thanks to an excellent defensive intervention by Oisin Deane and a wonderful cross-field delivery by Lydon, scored a point apiece from play, while Beirne and Lydon each kicked a free either side of one by Rooney at the other end, which left Mayo 0-14 to 0-9 in front after 41 minutes.

Lydon’s free was for a foul on Mayo full-forward Ben Holmes who had still managed a shot at the Sligo goal only for Cummins to smother.

Dropping back-to-back point attempts into the arms of Meaney and the momentum seemingly going against them, it would have been easy for Sligo’s players to drop their heads, however, another three points by Eli Rooney, a third two-point free included, preceded O’Mahony’s goal chance which Meaney tipped over, to leave just a point between the sides.

Mayo, at this stage, had an impressive inside forward line of senior duo Beirne and McDonald, and Tom Lydon, but supply had become a real issue, the chief cause being Sligo’s hunger for the hard ball around the middle third, with the Eastern Harps duo of Alex Lillie and Conor Walsh, the captain, and Cian Nicholson particularly to the fore.

Eventually, Kobe McDonald demanded the ball from Rio Mortimer and took off on a 50-metre gallop which delivered an excellent point – Mayo’s first from play in almost 15 minutes – but back to back pointed frees by Eli Rooney rendered the game all-square with six minutes of normal time left to play.

Referee Chris Ryan wasn’t doing much to endear himself to Mayo supporters with some of his calls but did award a free to Darragh Beirne after the Claremorris attacker was hacked to the ground by Patrick Brady, who seemed particularly fortunate to escape without a card. Beirne duly restored Mayo’s lead, and when Rooney missed a glorious chance to equalise from play, or then to kick Sligo in front from a long-range free, patient Mayo build up ended with Lydon laying on the pass for Beirne to kick the insurance score deep into stoppage time.

Sligo travel to play Roscommon this Wednesday, with the Rossies having been beaten 3-10 to 1-11 by Galway in Tuam Stadium in their opening game. Mayo have a bye and are not back in action until hosting Roscommon themselves on Wednesday, April 1.

Scorers – Mayo: Darragh Beirne 0-0-5 (2f), Tom Lydon 0-0-4 (1f), Oisin Deane 0-1-1, Kobe McDonald 0-0-2 (1 ‘45), James Lavelle, Colm Lynch and Shane Cunningham 0-0-1 each.

Sligo: Eli Rooney 0-2-6 (2tpf, 4f), Dara Mostyn (f), Cian Nicholson, Matthew Walsh and Eamon O’Mahony 0-0-1 each.

Sligo: Gareth Cummins; Josh McHugh, Patrick Brady, James Lavin; Eamon Keane, Alex Lillie, Oran Harte; Conor Walsh, Cathal Gilligan; Eamon O’Mahony, Michael Carroll, Cian Nicholson; Aaron Lang, Dara Mostyn, Eli Rooney. Subs: Liam Higgins (for Harte 7-15, temp), Matthew Walsh (for Carroll 26), Paul Flynn (for Mostyn 45), Oisin Devlin (for O’Mahony 59), Adam Feeney (for Walsh 60+3).

Mayo: Conor Meaney; James Lavelle, Tom Lambert, Aaron Coggins; Colm Lynch, Rio Mortimer, Thomas Tuffy; Shane Cunningham, Andrew Quinn; Oisin Deane, Kobe McDonald, Dylan Flynn; Darragh Beirne, Joey Holmes, Tom Lydon. Subs: Yousif Coghill (for Coggins 47), Josh Moyles (for Tuffy 54), Josh Carey (for Quinn 56).

REF: Chris Ryan (Galway)