Mitchels deliver firm response to group setback
Bob Tuohy holds onto possession for Castlebar Mitchels despite the efforts of Aghamore's Sean Og Tighe and Brendan Harrison who are seen clambering over Ultan O'Reilly. Picture: Conor McKeown
This was a lot more like the Castlebar Mitchels people expect they can be.
After a disappointing showing against Garrymore in the final round of group fixtures, a much more focused and purposeful Mitchels turned up to Aghamore last Saturday afternoon and hardly allowed their hosts any sniff of an upset.
Superbly led by their quintet of All-Ireland winners, Kevin Filan’s side were equally well served by James Durcan, who scored four points from play, and by Ultan O’Reilly, whose midfield partnership with Bob Tuohy was highly effective and provided an ideal launchpad for Mitchels who attacked with intent from deep, in particular through wing-backs Paddy Durcan and Sean Morahan.
It was the latter who kicked Castlebar’s opening point, in the fifth minute, in reply to Cillian Mooney burrowing in from the right and fisting over an Aghamore point in the first minute.
The home side were making a long overdue quarter-final appearance but didn’t seem one bit fazed at first. They were facing a stiff diagonal breeze yet went tit-for-tat on the scoreboard with Mitchels throughout the opening quarter, as Tom O’Flaherty negated a Paddy Durcan point, Fergal Boland replied to one by Cian Walsh, and Liam Lavin opened his account in response to one by James Durcan, leaving the scoreboard reading 0-4 apiece after 17 minutes.
After several recent cameos off the bench, Castlebar had opted to start the vastly experienced Neil Douglas – and their response to the blow of losing the full-forward to injury early doors hinted at a team supremely confident in itself.
The game’s first two-point score by James Durcan was sandwiched by singles from Joe Forry, after a glorious dummy past Jack O’Connor, and Paddy Durcan, and while Lavin’s classiest of second points was to follow down the other end for Aghamore, when he shot off the outside of his left boot from the right wing into the wind, a three points gap was stretched out to eight in a five minute spell before half-time by Mitchels. It felt like the winning of the game there and then.
Cian Walsh had added back-to-back points to bring his first-half haul to three, the first point punishing an uncharacteristic error by Aghamore midfielder Brendan Harrison who had tried to handpass his way out of danger, while a two-point free converted by Joe Forry – awarded for Aghamore backchat – was added to in stoppage time by a point from Eoghan Hughes, the earlier replacement for Douglas.
Aghamore had the wind at their backs for the second-half but it was Castlebar who opened like the wind was in their sails, pummelling the Aghamore posts with shots by Walsh and Paddy Durcan that tailed wide, and a crack at goal by Sean Morahan in the 35th minute, which home ‘keeper Adam Byrne did well to keep out with his legs.
A major then would have pushed the margin out to eleven points and surely leave Aghamore an impossible task but instead, two minutes later, the East Mayo outfit had the gap back down to five points after full-back Conal Hession became their unlikely goal-scorer. Cillian Mooney was aiming for a two-point score when the ball dropped short and was punched by Castlebar stopper Rory Byrne straight into the arms of Hession who shimmied in, dropped the ball onto his boot and prodded inside the right post.
Aghamore could really have done with adding a few quick points to that goal to help generate some momentum, but it was Castlebar who fired back an excellent response through points by Bob Tuohy and Joe Forry, to lead 0-15 to 1-05 after 40 minutes. In fact, it took the hosts a full 16 minutes of the second-half to raise their first white flag, but then when they did, through Jack O’Connor, the reliable Liam Lavin added an orange flag too, to cut the gap back down to four points at the 50 minute mark.
But while Fergal Boland would follow suit with a two-pointer of his own nine minutes later, and the earlier goal was also derived from a failed two-point attempt, Aghamore actually had six more shots from outside the arc all fail to land in the second-half, and it ended up they were punished by the much more economical of the sides.
Mitchels goalkeeper Byrne came forward to drill over a free, while the Durcan boys added a point each to their tallies, with hardworking Ultan O’Reilly rounding off the scoring in stoppage time.
Scorers – Castlebar: James Durcan and Joe Forry (1tpf) 0-1-2 each, Paddy Durcan and Cian Walsh 0-0-3 each, Sean Morahan, Bob Tuohy, Eoghan Hughes, Rory Byrne (f) and Ultan O’Reilly 0-0-1 each.
Aghamore: Liam Lavin 0-1-2, Conal Hession 1-0-0, Fergal Boland 0-1-1, Cillian Mooney, Tom O’Flaherty and Jack O’Connor 0-0-1 each.
Aghamore: Adam Byrne; Conall Breslin, Conal Hession, Oisin Greally; James Lyons, Conor Hunt, David Kenny; Sean Og Tigue, Brendan Harrison; Tom O’Flaherty, Fergal Boland, Jack O’Connor; Michael McNieve, Liam Lavin, Cillian Mooney. Subs: Ross Egan (for Mooney 41), Keith Cassidy (for Harrison 53), Derry Og Cox (for Tigue 55).
Castlebar Mitchels: Rory Byrne; Joe Tuohy, Donnacha McHugh, Conor Mulroy; Paddy Durcan, John MacMonagle, Sean Morahan; Bob Tuohy, Ultan O’Reilly; Anthony O’Boyle, James Durcan, Shane Cunningham; Cian Walsh, Neil Douglas, Joe Forry. Subs: Eoghan Hughes (for Douglas 14, inj), Ben Joyce (for O’Boyle 44), Stephen Keane (for Hughes 53), Johnny Maughan (for Cunningham 59), Calum Filan (for Walsh 60+2).
REF: James Regan (Hollymount-Carramore)
