Mayo deliver knock-out blow to Galway

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Preliminary Quarter-Final

Mayo 1-10
Galway 0-12

THE sights and sounds of the contrasting emotions at the final whistle said it all.
Mayo had ground out a victory that keeps their season alive and guaranteed them a ticket to the serious business of the All-Ireland quarter-finals next weekend.
Their supporters — who were significantly outnumbered in the crowd of 23,897 — roared their approval and watched on as Kevin McStay punched the air in celebration.
Galway had just been knocked out of the championship for the fourth time in five years by their fiercest rivals, in a season where they lost to Mayo three times and drew once.
The sound of silence from the Tribesmen’s fanbase was deafening.
A season that had promised so much just a week earlier had ended without a return trip to Croke Park for the Connacht champions.
In a championship where the margins have been so fine (three of the weekend’s four preliminary quarter-finals were won and lost by a point), and none of the All-Ireland contenders have been pulling up too many trees, this was another one of those games that could easily have finished differently.
In fact, had one of Cillian McDaid’s late goalmouth plays ended up in the Mayo net, last year’s All-Ireland finalists could have nicked this tense and tight local derby.
Colm Reape, who endured a tough day with his kick-outs at a windswept Pearse Stadium, also kept out goalbound shots Damien Comer and Matthew Tierney in each half.
But Mayo managed to do just enough to get back on track after last weekend’s disappointing defeat to Cork with the usual suspects — Paddy Durcan, Diarmuid O’Connor, Stephen Coen and Aidan O’Shea — leading their second half fightback which ultimately paved the way to a third championship victory of the summer.
The infamous Salthill wind dominated the day’s events.
Galway got the opportunity to harness it first as Mayo captain Paddy Durcan decided to hand the homeside the initiative after winning the coin toss.
So it was no surprise to see Padraic Joyce’s team lead by 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time as Mayo failed to score for the last 30 minutes of that opening period.
Had Shane Walsh brought his shooting boots, Galway would have been further ahead at the break. However, a string of missed chances helped to keep Mayo in touch.
It had all started so well for the visitors with early points from Stephen Coen, Tommy Conroy and surprise inclusion Kevin McLoughlin easing Mayo into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after seven minutes.
But that was as good as it got for them as they failed to score for the remainder of the half.
Galway’s dominance was built on their vice-like grip around the middle as they took complete control — in the air and on the floor — and laid siege to the Mayo goal.
With the gale behind them, the points rained over from Shane Walsh (two frees), Damien Comer, John Maher, Matthew Tierney (2) and Cillian McDaid as Galway started to pull away. Their six wides in that opening period were to prove costly later in the day.
Down at the ‘Arás’ end of the ground, Mayo struggled to make many inroads against Galway’s set defence and the stiff breeze.
Both Jason Doherty and Eoghan McLaughlin missed chances to close the gap before the break and we wondered how Mayo would fare with the wind behind them for the second half.
Galway had to take out Damien Comer (who had caused plenty of problems for David McBrien and others) at that stage because of a hamstring injury and Kevin McStay sent on Enda Hession to try and force the issue.
By the end of the third quarter all had changed, changed utterly.
Ryan O’Donoghue clipped a free to get the comeback going before he smacked over an inspirational point from long range to spark the Mayo crowd into life.
Then came the watershed moment on 43 minutes when David McBrien came flying up the field to break the line and, after a snappy one-two with Aidan O’Shea, the Ballaghaderreen defender crashed home the first goal of his championship career.
Mayo were now on level terms and the momentum had shifted.
Cillian O’Connor arrived a few minutes later for his first Mayo appearance in eleven weeks and swung over a trademark left-footed score with his first possession to nudge Mayo ahead.
They never looked back, with two brilliant long-range efforts from the marauding Paddy Durcan pushing them 1-8 to 0-8 clear at the end of the third quarter.
Eoghan McLaughlin also had the ball in the Galway net on 52 minutes but the goal was ruled out for barging by referee Seán Hurson.
It was all Mayo at that stage as the Tribesmen struggled for their second wind.
Paul Conroy finally opened their second half account with a neat snapshot on 55 minutes to get the scoreboard moving, but that was cancelled out by the outstanding Tommy Conroy after he sprinted through the Galway defence before fisting over.
The outcome was still hanging in the balance when Shane Walsh landed a free in the 61st minute, but he missed one soon afterwards before Cillian McDaid also spurned a chance to hit the target as Galway tried to summon up one last push.
Walsh (who only scored four times from ten shots at goal) tacked on another free in the 70th minute to leave the bare minimum between them as nerves started to jangle.
Extra-time looked a distinct possibility at that stage, but Mayo substitute James Carr picked the right time to drive through and fire over a typically eye-catching point in added time that doubled as an insurance score.
Galway pushed hard right to the bitter end and very nearly grabbed the goal that would have ended Mayo’s year, but Eoghan McLaughlin’s intervention saved the day, and a late point from John Maher wasn’t enough to prevent Galway exiting stage left.
Instead it’s Mayo who march on to the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the 11th time in 12 seasons next weekend.

Mayo
C Reape; S Callinan, D McBrien (1-0), J Coyne; S Coen (0-1), K McLoughlin (0-1), E McLaughlin; D O'Connor, P Durcan (0-2); J Doherty, J Carney, J Flynn; R O'Donoghue (0-2, 1f), A O'Shea, T Conroy (0-2).
Subs: E Hession for Doherty (h-t), C O’Connor (0-1) for McLoughlin (45), M Ruane for Carney (60), J Carr (0-1) for O'Shea (62), D McHugh for Coyne (72).

Galway
C Gleeson; J Glynn, S Fitzgerald, J McGrath; S Kelly, J Daly, C Hernon; P Conroy (0-1), J Maher (0-2); J Heaney, C McDaid (0-1), P Cooke (0-1); M Tierney (0-2, 1 mark), D Comer (0-1), S Walsh (0-4, 4fs).
Subs: I Burke for Comer (h-t), C Sweeney for Heaney ((48), R Finnerty for Hernon (62), T Culhane for Cooke (69).

Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone)