Mayo are second best to Roscommon

Pic: Sportsfile

Connacht SFC Quarter-Final
Roscommon 2-8
Mayo 0-10

Mike Finnerty
Castlebar

A WEEK after leaving Croke Park with a National League title, Mayo were brought crashing down to earth when they were dumped out of the Connacht championship at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park on Sunday.
Kevin McStay’s side never recovered from the concession of two first half goals as the Smith brothers — Enda (from a penalty) and Donie — hit the net to send Roscommon on their way to only their second championship victory over Mayo at the Castlebar venue since 1986.
The Rossies, who led from start to finish in a match that never really caught fire in front of a crowd of 19,361, will now face Galway in the provincial semi-final on Sunday week next.
Mayo will now have a six-week break before they are back in action in the group stages of the All-Ireland series.
The homeside trailed after a disappointing first half by 0-4 to 2-2 and, despite staging a mini-revival in the third quarter with scores from Mattie Ruane, Tommy Conroy and Aidan O’Shea, they were unable to get on level terms.
At times it seemed as though the exertions of last week’s National League Final seemed to take their toll on Mayo in the last quarter.
Roscommon outscored them by 0-5 to 0-2 in the last 20 minutes with Diarmuid Murtagh shooting three scores, including a brilliant brace from play, and Conor Cox also on target.
In contrast, Mayo’s only scores in the last 26 minutes came from Cillian O’Connor and Ryan O’Donoghue (a free) in the 62nd and 73rd minutes respectively.
The outstanding Enda Smith fisted over the insurance score five minutes into added time to seal Mayo’s fate.
Kevin McStay and company will look back on a string of chances that they failed to take over the course of the game, including Stephen Coen’s eighth minute pile-driver that struck the Roscommon crossbar.
Roscommon were 0-2 to 0-1 up on 24 minutes when Enda Smith converted a penalty after Conor Loftus was adjudged to have fouled Roscommon defender David Murray.
Now four points down, Mayo upped the ante to reel off three white flags in a row from Paddy Durcan (their only score from play of the half) and Colm Reape (a long-range free and a ‘45).
But any thoughts they may have had of drawing level were ended when Donie Smith struck two minutes later to fire a loose ball past Colm Reape for a second Roscommon goal.
Mayo spared nothing in terms of industry and effort to try and get back into contention in the second half, but despite closing the gap to the bare minimum after 50 minutes, Roscommon kicked on again to seal the deal.
They march on to meet Galway while Mayo must go back to the drawing-board ahead of the All-Ireland series group stages on the weekend of May 20/21.

Roscommon
C Carroll; C Hussey, C Daly, D Murray; N Daly, B Stack, E McCormack; D Ruane, K Doyle; C Murtagh, C Lennon, E Smith (1-1, 1-0 pen); D Smith (1-0), D Murtagh (0-6, 4fs), B O’Carroll.
Subs used: C McKeon for Lennon (temporary, 54); C Cox (0-1) for D Smith (59); R Hughes for Daly (66); N Kilroy for Ruane (70); C Connolly for O’Carroll (72).

Mayo
C Reape (0-2, 1f, ‘45); J Coyne, S Coen, D McHugh (0-1); E McLaughlin, C Loftus, P Durcan (0-1); M Ruane (0-1), D O’Connor; F McDonagh, J Carney, J Flynn; A O’Shea (0-1), T Conroy (0-1), R O’Donoghue (0-2, 2fs).
Subs used: D McHale for McDonagh (46); C O’Connor (0-1) for McHale (temporary, 47); J Doherty for McLaughlin (61); C McStay for Flynn (61); D McHale for Ruane (70).

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan)