Mayo disappointed to be beaten by ruthless Galway in Connacht Ladies final

TG4 CONNACHT LGFA FINAL

Mayo 1-4

Galway 0-16

In Castlebar

Mayo put in a solid second-half showing as they pushed harried and asked plenty of questions of their Galway counterparts.

However, Galway withstood the fightback from their near-neighbours, and come the final whistle, stood on the Castlebar turf as Connacht champions for the 19th time

Mayo set their stall out early doors, keeping their players inside the big arc and building the ball up cautiously with their few offensives in the opening half.

The Green and Red, they were playing against a monstrous breeze, and it was no wonder it took them all of 24 minutes to get a shot off in anger, as Sinead Walsh’s free sailed between the sticks.

In the meantime, they defended with a serious intensity. They held the reigning champions out until ten minutes in, when the flame-haired Kate Slevin was fouled, leaving her full-forward Róisín Leonard the simple task of firing over the black spot.

Olivia Divilly doubled the lead before long. While the scores in the first half were few, there were some exceptional ones, most notably a beautiful outside-of-the-boot Leonard effort which curled inside the left stick.

There was trepidation abound when Kate Thompson picked net-minder Julia Gawalkiewicz’s pocket twelve minutes in, but Divilly opted for the sensible option of a point.

Galway kept plugging away, but team manager Daniel Moynihan would’ve been less than pleased with the wide count for the Tribeswomen.

Liam McHale’s charges had a sniff of a goal of their own, when Erin Murray almost fed the prolific Walsh, but a Galway hand did enough to keep the ball from entering her grasp.

Mayo’s second score came two minutes from the changeover, when Murray turned Sarah Ní Liongsigh for her third point of the Championship.

However, the half-forward duo of Hannah Noone and Nicola Ward tagged on scores at the other end to give Galway a seven-point advantage as they headed into the tunnel for half-time.

Galway started the second innings well, with a Leonard free and Ward’s second of the day stretching the lead out to nine. There was almost a Mayo goal chance for half-time substitute Clodagh Keane, but she was adjudged to have taken out Ní Loingsigh.

The next time Mayo, through a Sullivan diagonal, tested the mettle of Ní Loingsigh, they got instant reward, when she was adjudged to have fouled Keane and réiteoir John Niland signaled a penalty.

Walsh went left and found the net, closing the gap to seven. Galway responded, though,  as Ailbhe Davoren showed two Mayo defenders a clean pair of heels before palming over.

With ten to go, Keane was wreaking havoc once more, when she plucked Sherin El Massry’s driving ball into the square from the skies and aimed for the left corner. Dearbhla Gower did well to repel the missile.

Sinead Walsh unleashed a booming strike with 57 minutes gone from outside of the big arc. 

Unfortunately, Mayo couldn’t produce enough of those clutch moments, and by the time the final whistle shrilled, the women in maroon ensured the CBE cup wasn’t leaving their grasp.

A full report, plus reaction, will be carried in Tuesday’s edition of The Mayo News