Mitchels are whitewashed by rampant Westport
Fiachra O'Cinnseala shoots a score despite the efforts of Castlebar Mitchels' Cillian Broderick. O'Cinnseala was his side's top scorer with a goal and nine points. Picture: Conor McKeown
The pleasure was all Westport’s as they romped to a scarcely believable 37 points victory over Castlebar Mitchels in the final of the county minor ‘A’ football championship. That such a margin could exist between the supposed best two under-18 teams in Mayo is hard to fathom, even more so when you consider that Mitchels had actually beaten Westport by fourteen points in the County Minor Division One League Final back in May. But if the final scoreline on Saturday wasn’t an accurate reflection of Mitchels’ true ability, they’ve no one to blame other than themselves; they had thrown in the towel long before even the half-time whistle.
The winners had found themselves four points in arrears inside three minutes as Castlebar Mitchels burst from the traps to score a goal through Daniel Filan, who tapped in after Aaron Mojic’s initial shot had struck the butt of the left upright, which was followed by a point from Fionn Filan. But Westport’s response was to score six goals and nineteen points without reply between the fifth and 33rd minutes. By the 49th minute the Coveys were leading by 41 points. Rarely, if ever, has MacHale Park bore witness to anything so relentless.
Five of Westport’s first six scores were kicked from outside the arc, including two pointers from Fiachra O’Cinnseala, two, Oisin Barrett, and goalkeeper Rowan McLoughlin, who also converted a ’45, and there were singles also by Fionn and Fiachra O’Cinnseala and by Ben Holmes, before the latter scored the game’s opening goal on 17 minutes, combining superbly with his brother Tom after initially breaking Dara Dawson’s raking delivery.
That made it 1-12 to 1-1 and pairs of points by Fiachra O’Cinnseala (from play) and Dawson (from frees) preceded Westport’s second goal, palmed home by Oisin Barrett after the most unselfish of full-forward play by Ben Holmes.
A third major arrived when Castlebar’s porous defence failed to land a glove on Darragh Reynolds who strolled through from the left half-back position and caressed the ball into the bottom left corner. Sandwiched by Fionn O’Cinsealla’s two pointer and Dara Dawson’s single, it meant that Westport headed for their interval refreshments with a 24 points advantage – 3-19 to 1-1.
You could only imagine what might be the tenor of the team-talk in the Castlebar Mitchels dressing-room at half-time but whatever was said, it didn’t prevent them from conceding three more goals inside three minutes of the restart, as Barrett and Reynolds each doubled their tallies either side of Oisin Wallace also finding the net and becoming the sixth of Westport’s starting forwards to score from play.
Mitchels finally ended a 31 minute drought when Daniel Filan swung over a free but with Ben Holmes continuing to cause havoc at the edge of Castlebar’s square, he laid on both final passes for Fiachra O’Cinnseala to score a point and then a goal in the 39th and 41st minutes after which Holmes himself pointed and substitute Matthew O’Malley smashed home Westport’s eighth goal just seconds after his 46th minute introduction, the assist coming from fellow sub James Tunney.
There was now a stunned silence about MacHale Park, with the scoreboard reading 8-21 to 1-2 (a difference of 40 points) and still almost a full quarter yet to play. It was a small mercy on the Yellow and Red then that Westport added on just two more points, through Fiachra O’Cinnseala and Ben Holmes, albeit the Coveys also had a ninth goal ruled out for square ball while sub O’Malley was denied his second goal by a decent save from Castlebar’s overworked keeper Aaron McHale.
A converted two-point free by Ben Joyce and three late points from play by the ever honest Daniel Filan offered Castlebar the smallest of consolations on an evening where Westport’s dominance could hardly have been any more emphatic.
Scorers – Westport: Fiachra O’Cinnseala 1-2-5, Oisin Barrett 2-1-0, Darragh Reynolds 2-0-0, Ben Holmes 1-0-3, Oisin Wallace and Matthew O’Malley 1-0-0 each, Fionn O’Cinnseala and Rowan McLoughlin (1tpf, 1 ’45) 0-1-1 each, Dara Dawson 0-0-3 (2f).
Castlebar Mitchels: Daniel Filan 1-0-4 (1f), Ben Joyce 0-1-0 (1tpf), Fionn Filan 0-0-1.
Westport: Rowan McLoughlin; Darragh Malone, Mattie McLoughlin, Liam Marshall; Fintan Burrows, Aodhan Gavin, Darragh Reynolds; Tom Holmes, Ross O’Connor; Oisin Wallace, Dara Dawson, Fionn O’Cinnseala; Oisin Barrett, Ben Holmes, Fiachra O’Cinnseala. Subs used: Matthew O’Malley, Matthew Scahill, James Tunney, Jamie O’Toole, Jack Collins, Conan Reilly.
Castlebar Mitchels: Aaron McHale; Darragh Broderick, Jack McNicholas, Cillian Broderick; Tadhg Kearney, Micheál Shaw, Eoghan Dever; Ben Joyce, Lyndon Heaney; Aidan Dempsey, Fionn Filan, Odhran Donnelly; Aaron Mojic, Daniel Filan, Sean Moran. Subs used: Paul Rowland, Darragh Lawlor, Aaron Gately, Dylan Burke, Kian O’Malley, Alfie Eglington.
REF: Colm Reilly (Crossmolina Deel Rovers)
