Mayo Minors beat Roscommon.

Mayo Minors beat Roscommon

Mayo 1-11
Roscommon 0-11

Rob Murphy
McHale Park

Mayo's minors set up a semi final with Leitrim next Saturday night after a Cillian O'Connor inspired three point win over Roscommon at McHale Park.
Mayo's captain, O'Connor kicked 1-6 during the game including a brilliant exhibition of free taking, combined with a gem of a goal in the first half that proved the game's key score.
Roscommon had the aide of a strong breeze in the first half but for the large part they failed to capitalize. They owned possession and territory for long periods but kicked no less than eleven wides.
That contributed to their two point deficit at half time with Mayo leading by 1-4 to 0-5. The most crucial score of the first 30 minutes came at the midway point with Cillian O'Connor riffling a shot to the net after a fine diagonal pass from Darren Coen.
That broke a three point tie and Mayo maintained the lead through to half time. Roscommon had scored two fine points from play early from the respective boots of Donal Smith and Kieran Donoghue but by half time, the wides were mounting and the scores had dried up.
After half time Mayo kicked three points in as many minutes in a period that seemed to suck the life out of the visitors. O'Connor kicked two frees from hand before Danny Kirby landed a long range beauty from all of 50 metres.
The wind was telling and while Ciaran Murtagh did his best with four second half frees in total for Roscommon, Mayo were always more than one score in front thanks to O'Connor, Kirby and Coen in the scoring department.
Mayo: Paul Mannion; Brendan Harrison, Niall Freeman, Ciaran Twomey; Mark Regan, Conor Walsh, Conor Horan; Danny Kirby (0-3, 1f, 1 '45), Sean McGrarry; Ryan Quirke, Michael Forde, Fergal Durkan; Cian Costello, Darren Coen (0-2), Cillian O'Connor (1-6, 6 fs).
Subs: Brian Timlin for Regan; Adrian Leonard to Durkan; Jack McDonnell for Forde.
Roscommon: Tadhg Lowe; Eamonn Mulry, David O'Dowd, Ciaran Cafferkey; David McDermott, John McManus, Conor Daly; Michael Holland, Eamonn Donoghue; Kieran Donoghue (0-1), Colin Compton, Cillian Egan; Donal Smith (0-4, 3 fs), Shane Leydon, Ciaran Murtagh (0-6. 6fs).
Subs: Ross Timothy for McDermott; Gerry Cregg for Cillian Egan; Dara Jones for Smith.
Referee: Eamonn O'Grady (Leitrim)