Mitchels send the three-in-a-row champions packing
Super Sub: Castlebar Mitchels' Neil Douglas prepares to shoot for goal against Ballina Stephenites during the Connacht Gold Mayo SFC Round 2 game on Friday night in Castlebar. Picture: Conor McKeown
In the 124 previous instalments of the Mayo Senior Football Championship, 69 times the Paddy Moclair Cup was won by one of the protagonists in this clash on Friday evening.
But come full-time, if it is to be won for a 70th time by one of them this year, it will be title number 31 for the county town men after they eliminated the three-in-a-row defending champions, Ballina Stephenites, from this year's competition.
The coup de grâce in this encounter was applied by one of the Mitchels veterans, as Neil Douglas rounded off the scoring with a late salvo of 1-1 off the bench to put the game to bed. However, this was ultimately a victory backboned by their younger generation.
When they needed to keep in touch after David Tighe’s early goal, it was Calum Filan and Cian Walsh who got the scores. When the game was there to be won, Bob Tuohy put in a commanding performance in the middle of the field in the second half, including a stunning two-pointer to wrestle the lead back with a quarter of the game to go.
Mikey Murray and Conor Jordan had the visitors two clear early doors, but Filan and Walsh scores tied the contest up with seven minutes gone. Ballina, who fell to a shock opening-round defeat to Garrymore a fortnight ago, struck for the first goal 12 minutes in through David Tighe.
The Stephenites' number four drove down the right flank and played the ball to Murray; the big midfielder couldn’t hold on to the ball but was able to flick it back into Tighe’s path, who connected pure and true on the deck to send it past Rory Byrne to the back of the net. That was quickly followed by a Conor McStay point, and the visitors were looking good.
Mitchels didn’t panic and reeled off four scores on the bounce through a Filan brace and one each from Walsh and James Durcan to have it all square with 21 minutes gone. It was then the visitors' turn to have a scoring run, with Murray, Jordan, and Patrick Carr all raising white flags to go three clear again.
However, down the final few furlongs of the first half, it was Mitchels who hit a momentum-shifting run of scores. Paddy Durcan cut the gap back to two following a typical darting break. His brother James then found space on the edge of the two-point arc to fire over the first orange flag raiser of the evening, and just before the break, Rory Byrne came up to hammer over another two-pointer from a free to send Kevin Filan’s side in leading 0-11 to 1-6 at half-time.
The opening exchanges of the second half saw both defences on top, as for the most part they smothered their opponents' attacks, forcing the ball to be played around the face of the danger area.
Shane Cunningham did get in for a great goal chance for the hosts, which he pulled wide on the near side when he really should have played in Cian Walsh, who was unmarked in acres of space.
Carr and Filan exchanged the first scores of the half in the 37th and 38th minutes, then Conor McStay made it a one-point game not long after. Ballina looked like they had wrestled control of the game back when Carr’s brilliant long-range two-point free edged his side in front by a single point with 13 minutes to go.
But it was Mitchels who drove for home. Bob Tuohy, whose influence on the game had grown, drove over his own two-point effort in response almost immediately, and then Paddy Durcan and James Durcan added single-point efforts of their own to leave Mitchels three to the good with five minutes left.
The Stephenites, knowing that it was win or bust, threw Dylan Thornton, Ben Thornton, and Ciaran Tracy into the fray. However, it was Mitchels sub Neil Douglas who landed the knockout blows, sending his side into the last eight with a game to spare, while sending Ballina into their final group game against Balla with, at best, a place in the relegation play-offs to avoid.
Scores - Castlebar Mitchels: Neil Douglas 1-0-1, Calum Filan 0-0-4 (2f), James Durcan 0-1-2, Paddy Durcan, Bob Tuohy and Rory Byrne (1tpf) 0-1-0 each, Cian Walsh 0-0-2.
Ballina Stephenites: Patrick Carr 0-1-2 (1tpf, 1f), David Tighe 1-0-0, Mikey Murray, Conor Jordan and Conor McStay 0-0-2 each.
Castlebar Mitchels: Rory Byrne; Joe Tuohy, Donnacha McHugh, Fintan Borotto; Paddy Durcan, John MacMonagle, Séan Morahan; Bob Tuohy, Ultan O’Reilly; Anthony O’Boyle, Calum Filan, Shane Cunningham; Cian Walsh, Ethan Gibbons, James Durcan. Subs: Brian McDonnell for Ultan O’Reilly), Neil Douglas (for Filan), Colm Mulroy (for O’Boyle); Conor Stenson (for Borotto).
Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Luke Jordan, David Tighe; Sam Callinan, Brendan Collins, Barry Walsh; Mikey Murray, Frank Irwin; Luke Feeney, Conor Jordan, Niall Feeney; Patrick Carr, Conor McStay, Matthew Leonard. Subs: Mikey Cadden (for Walsh), Ciaran Treacy (for Leonard), Dylan Thornton (for L Feeney), Ben Thornton (for N Feeney).
REF: Ronan Gurren (Aghamore).
