Mighty Mitchels see off Westport in opening round of U-21 championship

Mayo U-21 A Championship 

Castlebar Mitchels 4-14 Westport 1-9

Oisín McGovern in Westport

Castlebar Mitchels put in a splendid attacking performance to defeat Westport by fourteen points to in the opening round of the Under-21 A Championship this afternoon.

A pair of goals from the excellent Sean Morahan were just some of the highlights of a display from a Mitchels team filled with players who’ve already played intermediate and senior football this year.

Despite conceding a goal to Donnacha McHugh after 50 seconds, Westport held their own in the opening quarter, with Finbar McLaughlin causing Mitchels a world of hassle.

However, Mitchels pulled away in the last ten minutes of the half when Mark Cunningham, Ciaran Mylett and Tomas Waldron pegged four unanswered points.

Kevin Filan’s men were unlucky not to get a second goal during that time.

However, they weren’t long correcting that when Conchobar Mulroy hit the net with a low effort in the 35th minute.

The rain dampened some of Mitchels scoring prowess but did not stop the excellent John McMonagle from landing a super point just before fellow defender Sean Morahan landed their third goal.

Westport clawed back a goal through Finbar McLaughlin in the 46th minute, but only got one more point in the rest of the game.

Sean Morahan crowned his team’s performance when he took an outrageous long ball from Ben McHale before burying the ball in the net three minutes from time.

There will be a full report, plus reaction from Castlebar Mitchels manager Kevin Filan, carried in Tuesday’s print edition of The Mayo News.