Mayo take one step nearer promotion
Mayo were made to dig deep before securing a nine points win away to Armagh on Sunday afternoon.
Mayo maintained their promotion push with a victory in Armagh that was harder earned than the nine points margin might suggest. The Orchard hosts led by one point as this match ticked past the hour mark yet despite tagging on four more points, found themselves swept aside by a Mayo tsunami that yielded 2-7 down the stretch. The result sets up a straight shootout between Mayo and Wicklow on Saturday week to decide who joins London in the Division 3 final.
Shane Boland and Liam Lavin struck a combined 1-12 from play for the winners while Armagh, in contrast, were largely reliant on the free-taking skills of Shea Harvey to stay on the coattails of their Connacht visitors.
Mayo were hot favourites to make it four wins from five this campaign and the early indicators were that this might be a quite straightforward exercise, as three points by Shane Boland and a goal he helped set-up for Joe Burke saw the Green and Red lead 1-5 to 0-3 after only seven minutes. However, with Harvey in exceptional form, Pauric McNaughton nailing three points from play and Joe O’Connor sending a rocket to the top corner of the net, Armagh had their arrears reduced to the minimum at half-time, 1-11 to 1-10.
And the hosts maintained their momentum to take the lead after 58 minutes, with Mayo reliant on Liam Lavin for all three of their second-half points until eventually rediscovering their best form deep into the final quarter. Cormac Phillips flicked a Lavin delivery to the net for his third goal in two games before Shane Boland iced the cake with a third Mayo goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
