Sunday stroll for Mayo hurlers

Sunday stroll for unbeaten hurlers


Division 3b
Mayo 2-18
Donegal 0-12

Mike Finnerty
Castlebar

THE Mayo hurlers took another stride in the right direction in front of their small band of loyal supporters last Sunday as they maintained their unbeaten National League record in style.
Murt Connolly will have been fairly pleased as Mayo got eight different players on the scoresheet, including the impressive Keith Higgins who weighed in with 1-5, and they also kept a clean sheet against an admittedly anaemic forwardline.
Early on it seemed as though Donegal might make a game of it as the long-range shooting of Niall Campbell kept them in touch, but they gradually ran out of ideas up front.
Their tendency to give away frees inside the range of Kenny Feeney, Keith Higgins and Stephen Broderick also didn’t help their cause — 2-9 of Mayo’s tally came from placed balls.
The two first half goals went a long way towards settling the argument; Kenny Feeney drilled in the opener on nine minutes when his long-range free whistled past the Donegal defence, and goalkeeper Paul O’Brien, on its way to the net.
There were 30 minutes on the clock when Keith Higgins cracked his 20m free low and hard past O’Brien and a handful of backs as the Donegal cover seemed to think the Mayo midfielder would be content with a point.
The winners never looked back after scoring their second major and, in truth, they just kept the scoreboard ticking over during the second half as Donegal faded out of contention completely.
The visitors were outscored by 0-9 to 0-4 after the interval as Mayo won most of the individual battles and picked off enough scores from frees to keep things comfortable.
The first quarter of the game had been much more competitive. Donegal made a positive start and two early points from their sharp-shooter, Niall Campbell, eased them into the lead after six minutes.
However, Mayo responded impressively and rattled off 1-3 without reply as Kenny Feeney converted a free to go with his goal, and Ronan Cullinane and Michael Morley also hit the target.
Donegal met this first challenge head-on with three quick points from frees (including one outrageous score from inside his own half) from the confident Campbell, and Steven Boyle smacked over the equaliser on 20 minutes.
This was to be the first, and last, time that the sides were level.
Mayo upped the ante soon after, picking up the pace and moving the ball to the inside line as quickly as possible. An unanswered 1-3 was their reward.
Keith Higgins’ goal was a huge boost and the talented midfielder also contributed two points during this purple patch, including a superb score from play after he glided through the Donegal defence.
Behind by six points, the visitors were starting to feel the pinch and a score from Niall Campbell was answered emphatically by a hat-trick of points from Niall Murphy, Derek McDonnell and Stephen Broderick as Mayo started to cut loose in front of goal.
That scoring burst left the winners ahead by 2-9 to 0-8 at the break and they closed the game out slowly but surely as the second half wore on.
Stephen Broderick landed four frees, and a point from play, to put the game beyond Donegal’s reach and two scores from Keith Higgins (one after his penalty was deflected over the bar) left thirteen points between the teams at the end of the third quarter.
By that stage Donegal had been reduced to 14 men after the dismissal of Joe Boyle for two bookings, and the last fifteen minutes was little more than a training spin.
Stephen Hoban got his name on the scoresheet before two Lee Henderson frees took the bad look off the Donegal tally. However, Keith Higgins had the final say with a stylish score to cap a good day’s work.

Mayo
D O’Brien; S Connell, D McConn, G Henry; M Morley (0-1), P Connell, S Morley; B Higgins, K Higgins (1-5, 1-1fs, ‘65); N Murphy (0-1), D McDonnell (0-1), K Feeney (1-2, 1-2fs); D McTigue, S Broderick (0-6, 5fs), R Cullinane (0-1).
Subs used: P O’Grady for Feeney; B Hunt for B Higgins; S Hoban (0-1) for Broderick; D Gallagher for Cullinane; S Mulryan for S Morley.

Donegal
P O’Brien; J Boyle, C Breathnach, A McDermott; J Donnelly, P Sheridan, M McCann; S Boyle (0-1), P Hannigan; N Campbell (0-8, 4fs,‘65), E McDermott, C Mathewson (0-1); M McGhee, S McVeigh, L Henderson (0-2, 2fs).
Subs used: P Burns for O’Brien; S O’Connor for McCann; P Horan for McGee; M Lillis for Hannigan.

Referee: C Browne (Galway)