3 Mayo players who caught our eye against Armagh

STEPPING INTO THE BREACH Mayo goalkeeper Rory Byrne makes his way on to the field at Dr Hyde Park last Sunday. Pic: Sportsfile


Feature
Edwin McGreal

1 Rory Byrne
Castlebar Mitchels

SOMETIMES it is no bad thing for a league debut to be thrown at you just minutes before throw-in. There’s no time to think too much about it.
But imagine your thoughts when, ten seconds in, you’re lobbed with a fluke goal?
A penny for Rory Byrne’s thoughts right then! His positioning might not have been perfect but you would forgive him given the late nature of his call-up after Rob Hennelly hurt his knee in the warm-up.
The fact that CiarΡn Mackin was clearly going for a point cannot be ignored either.
Byrne didn’t let that get to him though, delivering a good, long kick-out to space which Mayo won and getting away all bar one kick-out to a team-mate.
Even more crucially, he came and claimed two very tricky high balls outside his square in the second half.
It was a very useful game in the bank for Hennelly’s understudy and, with Mayo safe in Division 1, he might get more games too.  

2 Paddy Durcan
Castlebar Mitchels

WITH Rian O’Neill operating out the field, Durcan was unleashed in the first half and while he was slow to get into the game, he came up trumps when needed most.
His first shot for goal, in the second half, was badly wide but it was not in vain.
It was in that almost exact spot that he kicked Mayo’s equaliser in the closing stages.
Durcan wasn’t put off by his earlier miss. He demanded the ball and used the previous kick to judge his shot much better, with a tricky wind. It curled just inside the post.
Durcan’s powerful box to box runs are a huge part of his game and it was so apparent in the last score of the day. He pulled wide right as Aidan O’Shea fetched a ball into the Mayo large parallelogram.
He took off like a March hare up the field, getting on the end of a flowing move to put Mayo two points clear and home.

3 Jordan Flynn
Crossmolina

THE powerful midfielder has been progressing game on game so far this season.
He came off the bench against Donegal and Monaghan to good effect.
That earned him a start in Croke Park against Dublin and he delivered with a very mature display. His kick-passing was excellent and he made light of a very early yellow with a controlled display.
He started on Sunday and made a massive defensive intervention to deny Armagh a second goal in the first half which could have made the game safe for the Ulster men.
He kicked one wide in the first half, but it was a shot worth taking on.
After half-time he moved to wing-forward, got his hands on a lot of ball, and worked himself into the ground.
His confidence and poise was so apparent in the lead score. Armagh were frantically getting back but Flynn showed great awareness to cut inside and slide over the score.
He is really putting his hand up to start alongside Mattie Ruane against Galway.