Superior second half sees Mayo into final
Mayo’s Joseph Burke (right), wheels away after scoring his side’s first goal against Sligo deep in the second half. Pictures: David Farrell Photography
It took a mammoth effort in the second half from Mayo against Sligo to make it five wins from five games and advance to the final of the National Hurling League Division 3A on Saturday afternoon.
Their cause was helped immensely by the dismissal of Sligo full back Gavin Connolly three minutes into the second half. At this point, Mayo were trailing by seven points having taken half an hour to get up and running. They hit a purple patch before half time, putting three points over in quick succession but Sligo hit their own good streak before the whistle, scoring thrice themselves to keep that gap at seven heading in at the break.
Connolly’s dismissal did help but ultimately, Mayo would need both of their goals to truly put away Sligo who got themselves back to within a point when it looked as though Joe Burke’s goal had put them away. Eoghan Delaney’s late green flag raiser proved the insurance score that Mayo needed to see the game out.
They had come a long way from the early exchanges of this game in which Mayo found themselves frustrated and under fire. Sligo went 0-3 to no score in front in the opening eight minutes as Fionn Connolly, Michael Munnelly and Finnian Cawley fired over.
Meanwhile, Mayo were having a horrid day shooting between the posts. In the first half, they hit six wides and had five shots drop shooting into a cross field wind. The clearest sign of their wastefulness came in the 11th minute when the typically clinical Shane Boland sent a meat and potatoes free kick wide of the mark.
Sligo remained accurate with Gerard O’Kelly Lynch scoring a brace of frees, Joe McHugh and Rory McHugh firing over to extend their lead to 0-7 to nothing. On the half hour mark, Boland made up for his earlier miss and sent over his team’s opening score. Liam Lavin followed up with one from play before Boland added his second of the half.
Mayo’s hot streak was cut short as Sligo added three more points before the break. O’Kelly Lynch, Fionn Connolly and Joe McHugh were the providers and their scores brough the game to half time.
Sligo were dealt a blow in the opening minutes of the second half. The ball was in the hands of Mayo keeper Bobby Douglas when the referee’s attention was drawn to the other end of the pitch, where an off the ball incident occurred. Gavin Connolly was found to be at fault and was given his marching orders.
Mayo took control of the game from here and took the next five points unanswered. Conal Hession, Liam Lavin, David Kenny, Bobby Douglas and Lavin once more provided the scores to bring Mayo to within two points. With 18 minutes played in the second half, Sligo halted the rot temporarily as Tomás Cawley fired over but Mayo came at them again.
Eoghan Delaney cut the gap to two once more and then substitute Joe Burke found the back of the net. A David Kenny pass from deep fell into the Sligo danger zone and Burke got a foot to the small ball to see it on its way to the net. It sparked Mayo, and Cormac Phillips in particular, into life. Phillips got the next three scores for Mayo, a free and two from play.
Sligo were far from dead and buried and looked to mount a resurgence. Finnian Cawley, captain Kevin O’Kennedy and Gerard O’Kelly Lynch scored the points to get them back to within a point of Mayo. Eoghan Delaney’s goal put paid to their thoughts of rescuing the result. Phillips hammered a shot towards goal that Luke Comerford could only parry into Delaney’s path and the task was a simple one.
The result secures a place in the league final for Mayo in two weeks’ time.
