Majestic Mitchels secure Mayo Championship semi spot with victory against Carnacon

LGFA - MAYO SENIOR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP

Castlebar Mitchels 3-8

Carnacon 2-6

In Clogher

A golden end to the first half paved the way for Castlebar Mitchels to mark their return to the Mayo Senior Football Championship in style on a rotten Sunday morning.

This game still had something riding on it right until the death, though.

The game looked beyond hosts Carnacon for a while, but a late Louise Dowling goal gave them a slim chance of fighting back.

Ultimately, it wasn’t to be, and when standings were confirmed the 2024 Intermediate queens danced wildly on Carnacon’s home patch, the home side were gearing themselves up for a relegation play-off next Sunday against Hollymount. 

The hosts in Clogher got things off to a flying start, and an intricate hand-passing move saw Amy Dowling get the ball rolling.

Seconds later, though, they had a real breakthrough. Niamh Flannery rolled her marker exceptionally, before holding off Mitchels defenders to fire past Ava Murray.

The women from the county town weren’t to be deterred, though, and responded exceptionally to such a hammer blow.

They almost had their own three-pointer, but Sinead O’Boyle’s effort cracked the post.

Gráinne Flynn fired over a pair of frees, while Helen Murrihy also found the sticks to eradicate the earlier major.

The buildup to Murrihy’s single was exceptional, as the women in gold moved the ball all the way from Murray’s kickout up the turf.

The biblical downpours were leading to plenty of scrappy play and scrimmaging, and it was after a real tussle for the O’Neills that Murrihy fired over her second, and the leveller to boot.

Erina Flannery ended a drought for the hosts after 19 minutes to re-establish a slim advantage.

Danny O’Toole would have been less than impressed with his Carnacon woman, who found it nigh-on impossible to get past the opposition 45 all too often.

Those issues were compounded by the sin-binning of Anna Heaney for upending Karagh Neary in the 24th minute. Neary had epitomised all that was good about the Mitchels performance, driving forward, getting stuck in and taking plenty of hits for her troubles.

While Russell Gibbons and Rodney Clarke would have impressed with how Mitchels went about business, one place they were lacking was in accuracy, as they had squandered almost as many point efforts as they has stuck over the bar.

With the timer in the red, they were only one to the good, which didn’t really reflect their superiority on the pitch

Then, they made the one-woman advantage count, as they struck for blood.

Murray’s long-distance free may not have travelled between the sticks, but it wreaked havoc.

In the midst of the carnage, Laura Burke prodded the ball home to send the travelling support wild.

Carnacon were reeling, and hadn’t even caught their breath by the time Lucy Molloy left them at the base of a mountain when she fired into the net, meaning that the half-time gap had gone from one to seven in all of 90 seconds.

Things went from bad to worse for the 2021 champions when skipper Fiona McHale was yellow-carded within minutes of the changeover.

Laura Burke kept Mitchels grooving, before Niamh Hughes shot, squirmed under Lisa Nally’s outstretched body and over the line.

Nally was adamant that the ball hadn’t gone over the white line, but it had, and the three-pointer rightly stood.

The hosts knew that if results in the Westport-Charlestown game favoured them, they could still leapfrog them into third place, so they kept plugging.

Amy Dowling was doing her utmost to drag her team back into the game, and her quartet of points (including a booming score from range), had narrowed the gap.

Her sister, Louise, also found the net with a fine effort, but it was too little, too late. Their fate was sealed, as was that of Mitchels, who head to Knockmore next Sunday morning, two steps away from etching their name in the history books.

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