Mayo secure comfortable victory over Roscommon

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1

Mayo 0-15

Roscommon 0-9

Hastings Insurance MacHale Park

Mayo all but secured their status in the top division with a comfortable win over Roscommon in chilly Castlebar on Saturday night. The home side won at a canter after a dominant second-half display as the guests fell away in disappointing fashion in front of 9,160 spectators.

The Rossies had been well in contention at the interval following a determined conclusion to the opening half, but were blitzed after the break when Mayo kicked seven points without reply to effectively win the game.

Ryan O'Donoghue was the scorer in chief with six white flags while Donnacha McHugh also made an impression on the scoring charts with two well-taken points in the second period. However, there were aspects of the Mayo display which would not have pleased Kevin McStay as they faded out dramatically before half time.

The first half ended with Mayo a point clear, 0-7 to 0-6, after the home side failed to score for the last 16 minutes of play. The hosts had looked good going forward for the first 22 minutes and three points from Ryan O'Donoghue and singles from Fergal Boland, Colm Reape, Aidan O'Shea and Stephen Coen were noteworthy.

However, after Coen's excellent point which left Mayo 0-7 to 0-3 clear, the home side lost their eye for accuracy and Roscommon stepped in. Diarmuid Murtagh showed why he's one of the best in the land while midfielder Enda Smith was one of the main reasons the Roscommon men roared back into contention.

Indeed, Smith almost got the game's first goal after 32 minutes when a long delivery found him in the Mayo half and he attempted to chip the retreating Mayo goalkeeper. However, Reape got back to deflect the ball to safety.

Roscommon ended the half with just one wide to their name, while Mayo had five on their slate.

The trend was completely turned on its head after the break when Roscommon lost their radar connectivity and kicked five wides on the spin as Mayo dominated.

The home side were on top of the ground and were eight points ahead before Roscommon raised a flag. O'Donoghue had added another three by then, Donnacha McHugh had sidled forward to add two of his own while singles had arrived from Boland and Enda Hession.

Roscommon were exceptionally poor after the resumption and seemed to have left all their ideas in the dressingroom. All sense of adventure was decorated in green and red ribbons as Eoghan McLaughlin handled a huge amount of the football up and down the left wing.

Indeed, it was the Westport man who had the best goal chance of the game when after exchanging passes with Boland, he forced Conor Carroll into a fine save at his right post. Conor Cox did eventually kick Roscommon's first point of the half after 56 minutes but it failed to rouse any response from his colleagues.

Mayo didn't pull up any trees in the final quarter but they didn't need to as Roscommon devoid of ideas, persisted in launching high balls into the Mayo danger-zone. Other than that, the guests seemed to have no attacking options. In truth Mayo didn't have to be much better than average to win the game comfortably and all but secure their status in the top division for next season.

MAYO

C Reape (0-1); J Coyne, R Brickenden, S Callinan; D McHugh (0-2), E McLaughlin, E Hession (0-1m); J Carney, S Coen (0-1); B Tuohy, F Boland (0-2), J Flynn; A O'Shea (0-1), P Towey, R O'Donoghue (0-6, 3f)

Subs; M Ruane for Flynn (2, blood sub), Flynn for Ruane (4), T Conroy for Towey (38), D McHale for Tuohy (50), C O'Connor (0-1) for O'Shea (55), M Ruane for Flynn (61), C Loftus for McLaughlin (67)

ROSCOMMON

C Carroll (0-1 '45); D Murray, B Stack, N Higgins; T O'Rourke, E McCormack, D Ruane; E Smith, S Cunnane; R Dolan, D Murtagh (0-4, 1f), R Fallon; D Smith (0-1), D Cregg (0-1), J Fitzpatrick

Subs; N Daly for Cunnane (22), C Cox (0-2, 1f) for Fitzpatrick (ht), A Glennon for D Smith (47), R Daly for Fallon (53), U Harney for O'Rourke (61)

Ref: J McQuillan (Cavan)