Seán Rice
THIS was scary. Mayo, clinging by their nails to the precipice, were about to drop. Followers held their breath. Down building on the support of a late goal came searching for an unexpected win, their first of the entire campaign.
Desperation gripped both teams: Mayo, fearful of the ultimate sanction for having lost their way; Down, already doomed, anxious to go down in a blaze of glory.
In the end Andy Moran and Evan Regan came to the rescue of the hosts, and spared their blushes. But it was a close call, too close for comfort.
Mayo had begun to canter home halfway through the second half. They were seven points ahead, contentedly confident with almost everyone in the 8,352 attendance already loudly acclaiming a trouble-free jog to victory.
Scarcely a cheer greeted Down’s slow, determined recovery. And when the game entered injury time, Mayo’s unimpressive four-points lead still seemed unassailable.
Then Donal O’Hare availed of sloppy defensive covering to stick the ball in David Clarke’s net, and a sense of shock enveloped MacHale Park. Down had almost achieved the unimaginable. They had played to the end with pride. Relegation won’t feel so painful today.
Mayo manager Stephen Rochford will be relieved to have retained Division 1 status against the odds, against unprecedented injury and other absenteeism. Amid the ups and downs of the battle for survival a lot of emotional and mental energy has been expended. But Mayo survived. The manager has accomplished his first objective. Now the championship beckons.
Bright hopes of a jog-trot betrayed their nervous finish when Mayo went four points ahead in the opening minutes. Their physical superiority had immediate effect, and in the eighth minute Alan Freeman forced keeper Michael Cunningham into a daring save.
Down’s challenge might have evaporated when Cillian O’Connor had Mayo’s only goal from a penalty in the 20th minute. It was awarded when Evan Regan, Mayo’s best forward, was brought down in the box and it stretched their lead to six points.
Regan, at corner forward, went on to build a personal tally of nine points, most of them from frees. His performance in general was exciting and on occasions dazzled the Down defence. The Ballina man, together with Alan Freeman, benefited from high ball in the early minutes, but that supply fizzled out in the second half, and one wonders why?
Mayo’s good start became less impressive when Down’s fast breaks and free-running football clawed back the lead to two points at the interval 1-9 to 0-10. It would not have been so close if Aidan O’Shea, presented with a great opportunity by his brother Conor, had not swung the ball wide of the gaping goalmouth.
The big man did, however, impress with a prodigious work rate for the entire 70 minutes and his brother Seamus, together with Tom Parsons, had lot of success in the middle of the field.
But you wonder why, having built up a lead of seven points midway through the second half, Mayo allowed it to dissolve near the end, causing so much concern in those final moments.
Down revelled in the space they found to attack Mayo’s lead. They were allowed unrestricted movement through the centre, possibly because they were fitter and faster, and played with the kind of careless freedom that comes when your fate is already determined.
Cillian O’Connor showed signs of a return to his old form following his long absence through injury, and it is good to see that Regan’s left-foot skill matches that of the Ballintubber man’s right foot when it comes to frees. Both were splendidly accurate on Sunday.
The defence as a unit gave rise to concern when Down, supported by half-backs, drove at them in numbers and were able to wriggle through challenges. Similar problems were experienced in the second half against Kerry, something that will surely be worked on in the build-up to the championship.
U-21s prove once again that nothing beats heart
HEART transcends everything. And 17 big hearts, playing as one, have restored Mayo’s dominance of Connacht under-21 football ... after a lapse of seven years.
Thrown into disarray in the opening seven minutes while trailing by six points without the semblance of a decent response, this final at Markievicz Park seemed destined for the annals of further Roscommon glory.
The haemorrhage was stopped with a bit of luck from Roscommon negligence in the 23rd minute when centre-forward Henry Walsh fumbled a chance of a second goal with only the Mayo keeper to beat.
It looked then as if that opportunity would not have mattered. Roscommon, physically stronger in the vital positions, were in control almost everywhere, their corner forward Diarmuid Murtagh Mayo’s biggest torment.
And although they managed to rein in their danger men, victory still seemed beyond Mayo at half-time when they trailed by 1-6 to 0-4. The most feasible outcome and in the circumstances the one Mayo supporters would have gladly welcomed at that stage was to run the reigning champions close.
Courage and cool heads was the binding feature of Mayo’s recovery. After Conor Loftus reduced the deficit to four, goalkeeper Mattie Flanagan stopped a stinging shot from Murtagh.
Diarmuid O’Connor, in further manifestation of his limitless appetite for work, assumed mastery at midfield. Fergal Boland, the smallest of the forwards, but the bravest, scored from long range. And while the return for their improvement was slow, Mayo at least were challenging everything.
Stephen Coen, their captain, led by example at centre-back. Seamus Cunniffe, a full-back of quality, Michael Hall, Eddie Doran, Shairoze Akram, David Kenny and Matthew Ruane raised the bar of resistance and gradually Roscommon’s self-belief began to come apart.
Up front Brian Reape, Fionán Duffy and Liam Irwin convinced us that accuracy from distance is not a dying art among our young players. Having admirably held his nerve after missing a couple of easy frees in the first half, Irwin tossed over a few from a range of 45 metres with ease afterwards, one wonderfully converted from the sideline on the right side.
But it was the Breaffy man’s goal that clinched it for Mayo four minutes from the end when he ghosted in from the right wing to connect with a perfectly-placed cross from substitute James Carr.
For the first time Mayo had taken the lead. Roscommon charged back and Murtagh regained parity. But the momentum was with Mayo. Two minutes into injury time, Michael Plunkett struck the winner and a dramatic turnaround was accomplished.
Mitchels and Kilmainham
THE formal opening of the visitors’ centre at Kilmainham Gaol where many of the leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed brings to mind the contribution made to the restoration of the building over 50 years ago by Castlebar Mitchels GAA Club.
Club secretary Gerry McDonald presented a cheque for £100 towards the restoration of a cell during a visit by members of the club to the Gaol.
Preparations were being made at the time to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rising, in which many members of the GAA participated. In contributing to the restoration fund, the Mitchels, one of the leading clubs in the country at the time, set a new headline.
