Mayo swept aside by treble chasers Sligo
Mayo attacker Darragh Beirne solos past Sligo’s Conor Johnston during the EirGrid Connacht U20 Football Championship clash at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park last Wednesday evening. Pictures: David Farrell Photography
Eventually, in the eighth half-hour of a provincial championship that has was so memorable and spectacular that even the upcoming Munster SHC will do well to rival it for drama and ferocity, we got clarity.
They say in racing, that while punters cheer when their horse crosses the line first, handicappers allow themselves a wry smile when a race goes into the final furlong and most of the field still has a chance. Well going into last Wednesday night’s fixtures in Ballinamore and Castlebar, all five Connacht counties were still right in the mix in the race for a provincial title.
Roscommon’s pair of goals late in the first-half in Ballinamore meant that they put a little bit of daylight between themselves and Leitrim, but at MacHale Park, a wind-assisted Mayo took a 0-7 to 0-3 lead into the dressing-room, and even allowing for the home side’s nine first half wides, it felt very hard to call whether they or Sligo were the more likely winners of a fascinating contest that was packed with errors, but also with high-tempo football and some moments of real quality.
Fast forward to the final whistle just before 8pm, and Sligo had dished out what can only be described as a five-point hammering. Looking at the way that Paul Henry’s side had taken over defensively – holding Mayo scoreless for 25 minutes – and completely seized control of the middle third of the pitch, it felt like Peadar Gardiner’s side were all at sea, lacking either the firepower, the physical strength or the on-field inspiration to turn the tide.
The strength of the breeze was undoubtedly a factor in what was completely one-way traffic after the break, 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 a 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.
Other chances were spurned, but it still felt like from general play, the home side were doing a lot right. No-one summed up Mayo’s opening half better than wing back Tom O’Flaherty, who was fast, direct and incisive on the ball, cutting open the Sligo defence time and again. By half-time, one comment on Twitter, or X.com to younger folk, referred to the Aghamore player as a “Colm Boyle regen”. The only problem was that while he kicked one point, he also shot two wides and put another effort on goal off the base of the goalpost, and the overall level of return was far short of what the quality of his approach play merited.
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. Luke Marren, the star forward in the Sligo ranks, was being well marshalled by John MacMonagle and had been held scoreless, and it felt like Sligo needed a goal to get back into the game.
It wasn’t implausible that they might have got one – Connor Flynn also had an excellent chance well-saved at the near post by Dolan – but Mayo would have hoped that if they held out for a while and forced their visitors to chase the game, space would open up and their lively attackers would get more space in which to operate.
Instead, 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. Gardiner sent for his cavalry too, but Liam Maloney ended up picking up a black card, and notwithstanding a few good plays from Tom Lydon, the transformative effect wasn’t there.
Eventually Luke Marren’s class started to show, and the Bunninadden man kicked three second-half points from play, 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 – far more so than has been the case in any of their previous three outings.
The road back will be a tough one for the Yeats County, but on this form, they’re contenders, and will feel very good about their prospects ahead of their semi-final tilt against Galway tomorrow (Wednesday).
For Mayo, who have now lost to Sligo at this grade three years in-a-row and who have now gone six full campaigns without winning a Connacht title, the mood is very different.
