Mayo fail in bid to deny Galway four-in-row

Connacht SFC Final 

Galway 1-17 

Mayo 1-15 

Anthony Hennigan at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar 

(Att: 27,137) 

An epic contest eventually fell the way of Galway who won a fourth straight Connacht SFC title with victory over Mayo at sunny Castlebar on Sunday afternoon.

Having trailed the visitors by eight points at half-time, Mayo took just eighteen minutes of the second-half to reel in the defending champions, however, crucially, Kevin McStay’s side could never get their noses in front. The black-carding of defender Rory Brickenden with nine minutes remaining curtailed them, after which points by Rob Finnerty, from a free, Paul Conroy and sub Liam Ó Conghaile helped the Tribesmen over the line.

Mayo worked a two-point chance to equalise but Matthew Ruane’s kick in overtime from the right wing sailed wide of the near post.

Opting to play against the stiff breeze, the hosts had made an excellent start to the proceedings with Darren McHale’s seventh minute goal, after a give and go with Davitt Neary, helping Mayo into a three points lead. But they wouldn’t score again until the 34th minute by which time a display of two-point scoring by Paul Conroy and a 27th minute goal from the penalty spot by Matthew Tierney had helped Galway to gain a firm grip on the proceedings.

The Tribesmen led 1-11 to 1-3 at the interval but Mayo looked less impacted by the non-appearance of Diarmuid O’Connor for the second-half than Galway did by the absence of John Maher, both because of injuries. Where the Green and Red had raised four flags in the first-half, they had raised four more inside eight minutes of the restart, including from outside the arc by Ryan O’Donoghue and Matthew Ruane. O’Donoghue also nailed three points from frees and by the 53rd minute the scoreboard read 1-13 apiece, however, three wides in the next five minutes denied them from hitting the front.

A superb Cillian McDaid point was negated by O’Donoghue in the 59th minute but that was the last time Mayo drew level.

A chance for them to do so again arrived at the boot of half-time sub Paul Towey with under two minutes left to play but a superb block by Dylan McHugh sparked a Galway counterattack that ended with Ó Conghaile doubling his side’s lead.

Equally heroic was Galway goalkeeper Connor Gleeson. Twelve months ago he had kicked the match-winning point and this time he not only produced a brilliant save to deny Enda Hession a 67th minute goal that would have sent Mayo in front, but had earlier finger-tipped a Ryan O’Donoghue 50-metre free over the bar to reduce the award from two points to one.

As ever between these two, the Nestor Cup was decided on the finest of margins.

Mayo now enter the All-Ireland Series in a group containing three Ulster teams – the winners of Donegal v Armagh, Tyrone and Cavan, against whom they will commence their campaign at home against on the weekend of May 17/18. Galway will host Dublin on the same weekend.

Scorers – Galway: Paul Conroy 0-3-1 (1tpf), Matthew Tierney 1-0-1 (1-0pen), Robert Finnerty 0-0-4 (3f), Cillian McDaid 0-0-2, Sean Kelly, Matthew Thompson and Liam Ó Conghaile 0-0-1 each.

Mayo: Ryan O’Donoghue 0-2-7 (6f), Darren McHale 1-0-2, Davitt Neary and Colm Reape (’45) 0-0-1 each.

Mayo: Colm Reape; Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh, Enda Hession; Rory Brickenden, David McBrien, Stephen Coen; Diarmuid O’Connor, Matthew Ruane; Davitt Neary, Darren McHale, Jordan Flynn; Aidan O’Shea, Jack Carney, Ryan O’Donoghue. Subs: Sam Callinan (for McBrien 9, inj), Paul Towey (for O’Connor ht), Fergal Boland (for Darcy 60), Fenton Kelly (for McHale 65).

Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh, Sean Mulkerrin, Liam Silke; Paul Conroy, Sean Kelly; Cein Darcy, John Maher, Cillian McDaid; Matthew Tierney, Robert Finnerty, Matthew Thompson. Subs: Cathal Sweeney (for Maher ht, inj), Kieran Molloy (for Fitzgerald 42), Cian Hernon (for Mulkerrin 48), Peter Cooke (for Sweeney 60), Liam Ó Conghaile (for Thompson 65).

REF: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon) See Tuesday’s Western People for full coverage.