Cillian - nearly ready to rock as Mayo edge past Armagh

MAYO made it four wins from five league games when edging by Armagh in Castlebar today. The 2-17 to 0-22 scoreline illustrates what a tight, hard-fought battle this was - and afterwards, team manager Andy Moran was delighted with the victory. 

"It was a battle. We're delighted to have come out of it and we'll just keep doing what we're doing for the rest of league. We're not chasing anything - all we're doing is changing three or four players every time we go out and that's what we'll do in Kerry in two weeks and against Roscommon the game after that. If we get a day out in Croke Park at the end of it we'll take it, but if we don't we won't lose any sleep over it."

Mayo had the wind behind them in the first half and went to the interval with a nine-point lead. Jordan Flynn had kicked a goal and a two-pointer at that stage and was prominent in the trenches around the middle. Cian McHale and Conor Loftus had also raised orange flags as Sam Callinan drove out of the back time after time.

Armagh had their own flying wing-back as Jarly Óg Burns caused Mayo trouble and almost got in for a goal but Robbie Hennelly denied him. However, the Ulster men were missing chances, as team manager Kieran McGeeney stated afterwards.

"We're missing chances from inside the 21. That's hugely frustrating. We're doing so much more right, but when you're missing easy chances it's killing us," the Mullaghbawn man stated afterwards.

Mayo began the second half impressively with points from points from Bob Tuohy, O'Donoghue and Cian McHale.

However, Armagh were soon on a role with Cian McConville kicking points and two-pointers arriving from Greg McCabe and Oisin O'Neill. They closed the gap to three after 55 minutes, but then Mayo hit back.

Jordan Flynn won a dirty ball on the right wing, the newly-arrived Kobe McDonald took it on, passed to O'Donoghue and when he picked out McHale in the goalmouth, the Moy Davitts man moved onto his right foot and found the net. 

That gave Mayo momentary breathing space, but Armagh kept coming. They swept over three more points but McDonald raised two white flags in the run-in and when Callinan capped a great performance with another, they were three up in the last few moments.

However, two late O'Neill points had the crowd on their feet in the closing seconds. The final possession was a golden one and when Mayo got their hands on the ball and secured possession the deal was sealed.

Afterwards, Moran was happy with the win and delighted that another batch of players had got game time. He spoke about the conditions, attack, defence and everything in between. He spoke about Kobe McDonald, Conor Loftus picking up a 'not serious' injury and then he spoke about Cillian O'Connor.

"He's flying in training. We'll introduce him now when it suits. He was up the back pitch here (MacHale Park) this morning at 9-o-clock with Tommy Conroy and other lads training," the mabager added.