Roscommon 'master' Mayo challenge in Connacht clash

GAA - CONNACHT MASTERS FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Mayo 0-5

Roscommon 2-8

In Robert McCallion Memorial Park

With seven minutes to go and the Mayo Masters trailing by the bare minimum, there was every chance they could go on and topple Roscommon and win their second game of the competition.

Mayo had beaten Galway by a point in the opening round and were set to make it two from two as this battle entered the final stages. However, a whirlwind four minutes from Roscommon, in particular super sub Alan Daly, put paid to any aspirations of a Mayo win, as a late scoring flurry of 2-2 left the Rossies home and hosed in Swinford.

There’s no doubt about it: Mayo started the stronger of the two sides in this sun-splashed battle, and it took all of 40 seconds for Alan Moran to bisect the uprights. Had they been able to make the ball stick more in the forward line in the first half, they may have held an advantage on the scoreboard as the sides headed for the dressing rooms at the changeover.

However, that was not to be, and the two-point advantage Mayo accrued from their first two scores was as good as it got for Patrick Cunney’s men.

Roscommon, aided by the marauding number four Neil Cox, dragged themselves into the driving seat and ensured that, with the game coming down the home stretch, they were in pole position to take control.

Then they pounced with absolutely catastrophic effect. First, Daly plucked the ball from the skies before unleashing a rasping shot which Kieran O’Malley acrobatically kept out.

Unfortunately, the O’Neills fell kindly for David Kelly, who lashed into the roof of the net soccer-style to score the all-important goal.

By the time Daly got his own three-pointer, Mayo’s goose was cooked, and Roscommon were heading east with their second win of the campaign.

A full report will be included in Tuesday’s edition of The Mayo News.