Visiting Mitchels withstand storming comeback to lift county title
Adam Murphy of Castlebar Mitchels gets away from Tooreen's Ryan Finn. Picture: Mayo GAA
On a blustery Saturday afternoon last weekend at Adrian Freeman Park, Castlebar Mitchels were crowned Mayo U20 ‘A’ hurling champions after holding off a late fightback from Tooreen.
The hosts were left to rue two golden goalscoring opportunities in the first-half which would eventually come back to haunt them, as the Blue Devils had too much of a gap to bridge after half-time. Full credit must be given to the county town as they used the strong wind they had in the first-half to its maximum, with Colm Enright lethal from frees in both halves as well as scoring a crucial goal on the stroke of half-time.
Enright and James Byrne exchanged frees before Tooreen found the back of the net on five minutes. A point attempt from James Byrne came back off the post and dropped for Nathan Colleran to bundle in.
That goal, however, would be Tooreen’s final score until the second-half as Mitchels made full use of the inclement conditions to hit some monster points through a hat-trick of frees by Enright and a point each by John Kennedy and Lucas Kenny, leaving them 0-6 to 1-1 ahead on twelve minutes.
Tooreen created a rare opening a minute later when Fiachra Glavey played in James Byrne but the wing-forward was unable to gain control of the ball when one-on-one with Lee Hennigan.
Mitchels continued to fire and hit another seven points without reply through four efforts by Enright (three frees) and three by John Kennedy to open up a nine-point gap coming into first-half additional time.
Glavey and Byrne combined again to unlock another goal chance but on this occasion, Byrne’s thunderous shot cannoned back off the crossbar. It would be ruthlessly punished when Mitchels broke in the last action of the half and Enright raced away from three Tooreen defenders before kicking the sliothar past Stephen Reilly and into the net to establish a 1-13 to 1-1 lead for Mitchels at the interval.
Despite the twelve points deficit, Tooreen now had the wind at their backs and roared on by Tooreen support, the lead was cut to five by the 41st minute through four placed balls by Byrne and three scores from play by half-time substitute Cillian Mooney.
Enright stopped the rot for Mitchels on 43 minutes with his eighth free of the afternoon only for Byrne to bring it back to five once more five minutes later with a free of his own.
Mitchels appeared to gain some control and struck three on the trot through a pair of Enright frees and a point by Adam Murphy to lead by eight going into the last five minutes of normal time.
Tooreen rallied once more and another two frees by Byrne either side of a score by Sean Lynskey made it a five point game once more in stoppage time. Goals were needed at this stage and they found one when James Greally followed in on Byrne’s rebounded shot and finished into the net, but that would be the final action of what was an excellent final as Mitchels claimed the silverware.
