Mayo overwhelmed by Sligo and exit championship

EIRGRID CONNACHT U-20 FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP MAYO 0-9 SLIGO 0-14 

In the final round of what was an incredibly tight and evenly matched Connacht U-20 championship, both Roscommon and Sligo qualified for the knockout stages of the competition with surprisingly one-sided wins at Ballinamore and Castlebar tonight.

The 3-16 to 2-6 scoreline in Leitrim speaks for itself, but the disconsolate home supporters who trudged out of Hastings Insurance MacHale Park can’t have felt a whole lot better about what they had just seen, given that their team went 25 minutes in the second half without scoring, and were completely overwhelmed by a Sligo side that looked stronger, more direct, and much better able to win contested possession.

The strength of the breeze was undoubtedly a factor, but Mayo didn’t even create chances to test the elements in the second half. The fact that all three members of the inside forward line – usually the first to be selected as sacrificial lambs – were left on in a game where Mayo scored just eight points, says exactly what the Mayo management felt about where the problems lay.

In the first half there was no indication of what was coming, as Mayo raced into an 0-4 to 0-0 lead, with Oisín Cronin kicking two sublime scores in what was a very fast start. Darragh Reilly was desperately unlucky not to add a goal when he fielded a short Sligo kickout and immediately sent it back over the goalkeeper’s head, only to see it crash off the crossbar and out into safety.

Sligo gritted their teeth and got back into the game through hard earned points from Ronan Niland (a shot for goal that had to be parried over by David Dolan), Mark McDaniel and Connor Flynn, but at 0-7 to 0-3 at the interval, it still felt like Mayo were entitled to be fractionally the happier side at the interval, even if they had racked up nine first half wides.

Ten minutes into the second half, both sides had added a single point each, but the warning signs were there from a Mayo perspective. Midfield was now being dominated by Sligo, Dillon Walsh and Robert O’Kelly Lynch made a big impact off the bench, with Eli Rooney just about to do the same thing, and the chances were starting to rack up at the Albany end of the ground.

Eventually Luke Marren’s class started to show, and the Bunninadden man kicked three second half points with Rooney adding two more, as Sligo piled on the pressure and looked every bit like the team that reached last year’s All-Ireland final.

The road back will be a tough one for the Yeats County, but on this form, they’re contenders. For Mayo, who have now lost to Sligo at this grade three years in a row, the mood is very different.

MAYO: David Dolan; Rio Mortimer, John MacMonagle, David Slattery; Diarmuid Duffy, Seán Morahan (0-1), Tom O’Flaherty (0-1); Jack Melvin, Conal Dawson (0-1); Finbar McLaughlin (0-1), Cathal Keaveney, Oisín Cronin (0-2); Darragh Beirne (0-1), Niall Hurley (0-2), Darragh Reilly.

Subs used: Liam Maloney for Slattery (half-time), Tom Lydon for McLaughlin (39), Brendan Collins for Dawson (50), Paul Gilmore for O’Flaherty (53), Liam Moore for Cronin (56).

SLIGO: Ethan Carden; Ronan O’Hehir, Tommy Ross, Conor Johnston; Ross Chambers, Dylan McLoughlin (0-1), Rossa Sloyan; Conor Sheridan, Conor Walsh; James Donlon (0-2), Ronan Niland (0-1), Ross Doherty; Connor Flynn (0-1m), Luke Marren (0-6, 0-3f), Mark McDaniel (0-1).

Subs used: Dillon Walsh for Chambers (29), Robert O’Kelly Lynch for Sheridan (39-43, blood), Robert O’Kelly Lynch for McDaniel (43), Eli Rooney (0-2) for Flynn (46), Eoin Barrett for C Walsh (55), Daire Callaghan for Donlon (60).

Referee: James Molloy (Galway).