Perfect ten from Lydon sees Neale through
Mirror image: The Neale's Tommy Conroy is chased step by step by Islandeady's Liam Coyne. Picture: Michael Donnelly
Tom Lydon played a central role in helping The Neale safely navigate their way past Islandeady, at Páirc Naomh Muire, Tourmakeady, on Sunday afternoon and the Cong based club can now look forward to and relish having a quarter-final tie on home soil.
The glorious autumnal sunshine drew a large attendance to the splendid and picturesque venue, and with the pitch in pristine condition an entertaining and high octane clash seemed in the offing.
Islandeady were not overawed at facing The Neale, and the west Mayo outfit began the tie at a brisk pace with Zac Collins pointing inside the opening minute.
The Neale, wary of being swamped during the opening exchanges, gradually eased their way into proceedings and points from Robbie Hughes and Tom Lydon (mark), helped steady the ship.
The Neale were beginning to edge the 50/50 tussles in the middle of the park. Three frees on the bounce from Lydon, and another exquisitely taken free by his team-mate Sean Cosgrove, helped shunt the pre-match favourites into a 0-6 to 0-1 lead after 13 minutes.
Next it was the turn of Islandeady to enjoy a bountiful period of the opening half and efforts from the energetic Darragh Joyce (two, one free) and Pat Carolan forced the scoreboard operator into action, culminating in The Neale’s once healthy lead being reduced to just two.
The momentum was now clearly with the underdogs, especially so when The Neale’s Steven Conroy picked up a black card on 19 minutes. But despite having an extra man for 10 minutes, the west Mayo men couldn’t utilise their numerical player advantage, and instead the chasers could only match Lydon’s free for The Neale with a fine point by centre-forward Brendan Gibbons.
The Cong based side displayed great guile and ingenuity during a crucial phase of the first half, and this was typified when their captain Killian McHugh guided over a gem of a point on 25 minutes. Despite their splendid first half endeavours, it appeared that all of Islandeady’s hard grafting had gone up in smoke on 26 minutes. A devastating counteroffensive by The Neale saw Dylan Keane collect possession and he darted towards goal and finished with aplomb to help garner a 1-8 to 0-5 interval lead for the south Mayo men.
Despite their ace dead-ball sniper Tom Lydon guiding over an early second half free, The Neale’s game plan appeared to suffer a major set-back on 33 minutes when their centre-back Killian McHugh picked up a second yellow card.
Islandeady’s Gibbons and the Neale’s Tommy Conroy swapped points before Joyce landed his second free of the afternoon for the chasers on 44 minutes. But that would prove to be the west Mayo side’s final score, as Tony Collins’ troops proceeded to kick some bad wides during their periods of dominance against the 14 men of The Neale.
The leaders on the other hand, closed out proceedings impressively and Donal Costello’s outfit notched further points during the final 11 minutes of action courtesy of Lydon (0-4, 3f), and raiding corner-back David Morrin.
Overall, The Neale were much the better team, with their full-forward Tom Lydon producing a sparkling display and scoring an impressive personal tally of 0-10.
No team will fancy making the trip to Cong to face The Neale in the quarter-finals, whereas for Islandeady they must now navigate a path to safety from the dreaded relegation play-offs.
The players to shine for The Neale on the day were, David Morrin, Harry Costello, Tommy Conroy, Dylan Keane and Tom Lydon. Whilst for Islandeady, Ciaran Bourke, Liam Coyne, Darragh Joyce and Brendan Gibbons all impressed.
