Rossies almost ruin Mayo’s Croker ambitions
Roscommon defender Mark Ward does his best to stop Mayo's Liam Lavin from reaching the sliotar.
When Cormac Phillips timed his jump perfectly to pluck the sliotar from the sky before it could drop to James Dillon, it felt like Mayo’s place in the Nicky Rackard Cup final was in the palm of the Ballyhaunis forward’s hand.
When he swung his hurl and net at the Town End goal of Dr Hyde Park danced, Mayo led by 2-13 to 0-11, there was just 20 minutes to play, and it felt like the serious business of the afternoon had concluded. After all, this was a Roscommon team who came into this fixture under a cloud, having been brushed aside by Donegal a week ago, while their forward division looked anaemic.
At this point in proceedings, Roscommon’s top scorer and free-taker in the league (Paddy Fallon) had not seen any playing time, and the home side’s dead ball record was dreadfully poor. Robbie Fallon, who took over the mantle for his namesake, was making no impact from general play, and was having a mixed afternoon on frees as well.
Cian Murray, who came into the game as the Rossies’ top scorer from play, was also not a factor, and was soon to be called ashore. And even if Roscommon did find their scoring touch, there were too many Mayo forwards in form for them to be reeled in. Or so went the theory.
In practice, it didn’t quite work out like that. Mayo did make the Nicky Rackard Cup final and secured their trip to Croke Park for the June Bank Holiday weekend, but only by the skin of their teeth. A draw was just about good enough to advance by way of scoring difference, but going into stoppage time, Roscommon had all the momentum, and Mayo were reeling.
It felt like Conor Loftus in the Connacht final all over again when David Kenny was pinged for overholding while being tackled by Conor Cosgrove, and it was Offaly native James Hardiman who had the chance to play the role of Connor Gleeson and spoil the party, as he stood over a free just outside the 45 metre line.
This was where the absence of a free-taker on the Roscommon side was to prove crucial. Though Hardiman had three points to his name already, he’s not a dead ball specialist with club or county, and this high pressure situation, with the season on the line, was unfamiliar territory. His effort was pushed very slightly to the right of the posts, and Mayo had a reprieve.
Still Roscommon kept pressing and they got one more chance, but Seán Canning’s off balance effort from 65 metres out was a much more difficult opening. The teenage dynamo got his effort on target, but it fell about a foot below the crossbar, and the steady hand of Bobby Douglas was able to pull the ball in and effect the clearance, and Mayo held on.
Now that we’ve used up a little bit over half the allocated space for this match report to describe where it all came agonisingly close to falling apart, it’s probably only fair to spend a little bit of time focusing on the first three quarters of the game, where Mayo were comfortably the better side.
It was Cormac Phillips’ dead ball expertise that was central to Mayo starting well and moving 0-5 to 0-2 in front, though John Heraty also got a nice score on the run to kick off what was a very impressive opening half from the Moytura man.
Brendan Mulry was Roscommon’s main target for early ball but Luke Connor handled his threat quite well, David Kenny was dominant in his battle against Conor Mulry, and by taking out the two leading threats in the Four Roads attack, Mayo had a very solid platform, even allowing for the Rossies getting some traction further outfield.
Despite playing the better hurling, the visitors might have felt that with the half hour mark approaching, they needed to be more than two points in front, given the reasonably fresh breeze that would assist the Rossies in the second-half. Then Shane Boland hit a shot off the post, Shane Regan was sharpest to the rebound, and Enda Lawless just dragged Regan to the ground, leading to a black card for the Roscommon custodian, and a penalty that Regan rifled into the top corner.
1-8 to 0-6 became 1-9 to 0-8 at half-time, and while Phillips missed a great chance to test sub keeper Brendan Quinn, Mayo still should have had enough to come through comfortably. Even after Roscommon got the first two points of the second-half, Eoin Delaney, Boland and Regan pointed in succession to move the lead out to five, and then Phillips made his big catch and finish to seemingly put the game to bed.
First gradually, then all of a sudden, Roscommon worked the way back in. Conor Mulry struck a gorgeous point from the left wing, Seán Canning made a huge impact off the bench, and when Brendan Mulry gathered another rebound off the upright – one of five shots off the post on the day – he turned and whipped the ball past Douglas, and Roscommon had hope.
By the end, they had more than hope – they had an open door through which they could have walked all the way to Croke Park. They didn’t, and after four minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle confirmed what can only be described as a most unsatisfactory, and yet still incredibly valuable, result.
