ROUND 3
Down 2-19
Mayo 2-11
ADRIAN HESSION
BALLYCRAN
“IF they ever come to play us in Mayo, we’ll bring them down to Belmullet”. That was the general consensus amongst the Mayo travelling party after this Christy Ring Cup defeat on Saturday last.
A midweek switch of venues from Newry to remote Ballycran on the Ards peninsula meant a six hour crossing of the country followed by a ferry from Strangford to Portaferry and concluding with a thirty minute further drive up the Ards peninsula to Ballycran.
This place is about as far as you can go in Ireland for a hurling match. When Mayo did finally arrive in Ballycran, they found a fine hurling facility which would be a credit in any hurling stronghold, showing how seriously hurling is taken on the Ards peninsula. And after scanning through the Down teamsheet, all bar three of their panel on show play with the three main hurling clubs on the peninsula – Ballygalget, Ballycran and Portaferry. They take their hurling very seriously indeed in this remote part of Ireland.
So onto the game, and as could be expected, Mayo were slow to settle. Playing with the aid of the gale-force wind, they found themselves three points down within six minutes, Gareth ‘Magic’ Johnson recording two and Simon Wilson with the other.
When Mayo did finally settle, Paul Broderick was on hand to fetch high on the edge of the Down square before turning and striking past goalkeeper Graham Clarke. As the wind increased in intensity, Mayo began to open up and further points from Niall Murphy, Adrian Freeman (3) and Stephen Broderick were recorded as Mayo hit their purple patch.
Brendan McGourty and Magic Johnson for Down kept their scoreboard ticking over with astute points but when Adrian Freeman, Niall Murphy and Stephen Broderick again converted in succession, the score stood at 1-9 to 0-6 in favour of the Westerners with thirty minutes on the clock. At this juncture, a shock result looked on, as the vocal home support began to get agitated.
The concluding five minutes of the opening half however turned out to be Mayo’s downfall, as a lack of concentration and discipline allowed Down back into the game. The first was when Kieran Courtney was left all alone inside for Down and he went for goal low and hard. His shot was saved by Tom Duffy in the Mayo goal but the rebound was tapped in by Paddy Coulter to the Mayo net. The second came shortly before half-time when a difficult Down free was moved forward for dissent by Armagh referee Ger Devlin, and the resultant shot was pointed into the wind again by Johnson. All of a sudden the gap was down to two points.
The resumption saw Mayo start positively and Stephen Broderick was first to point for Mayo in the 39th minute. However, if Adrian Freeman’s low ground shot found the back of the Down net soon after, the complexion of the game may have changed, but the saddening statistic for Mayo is that they went thirty minutes of the second half from here without registering a flag.
In this spell of time, Down took full advantage of the driving wind and recorded 1-12 without reply. Brendan McGourty did most of the damage during this spell as he recorded three points but his exquisite goal on the run to the roof of the Mayo net in the 46th minute put the tie beyond reach.
It took until the 70th minute of the game for Mayo to record their second score of the half as a late well-buried consolation goal by sub Kevin Healy brought a respectable look to the scoreboard, while Mayo’s Niall Murphy finished off the scoring recording his third point of the game on the final whistle.
When asked about the outcome, Mayo manager Martin Brennan’s reply was positive. “I was very happy with the level of commitment and heart shown by the lads out there. We went into this game without Keith Higgins and Derek McDonnell, but the lads who came in gave it their all. We can’t afford however to lose players of that calibre and expect to get results in a place like this, but I was delighted with the way everyone did their utmost.”
So onto next week with the final round of the Christy Ring group stage against Westmeath in McHale Park on Saturday at 5.15.
Down
G Clarke; L Clarke, S Murray (0-1), F Conway (0-1); M Ennis, P Hughes, R McGrattan; A Savage (0-1), G Clarke; B McGourty (1-5), K Courtney, S Wilson (0-4,3f); E Clarke, G Johnson (0-6,3fs), P Coulter (1-0). Subs: K Coulter (0-1) for P Coulter.
Mayo
T Duffy; D Walsh, A Connolly, S Morley; P Hunt, P Barrett, G Whyte; S Broderick (0-3,1f); S Coyne; R Campion, S Leneghan, N Murphy (0-3); S Hunt, P Broderick (1-0), A Freeman (0-5,4f). Subs: A Healy for Morley, K Healy (1-0) for Campion, P McConn for Freeman.
