Westport book place in league final with win over Garrymore

Mayo Senior Football League Division 1 semi-final

Westport 0-13 Garrymore 1-6

Oisín McGovern in Westport

A late Shane Nally goal put a misleading look on a league semi-final that Westport won in a convincing if unspectacular manner.

Having led by point at half-time, Martin Connolly’s men powered to a four-point win over a decimated Garrymore that only scored twice in the second half.

Deprived of the services of some key players – including county man Enda Hession – Garrymore were wasteful in their play, particularly in the second half where they failed to catch fire on a wet evening.

Westport, despite missing Fionn McDonagh and Eoin McLaughlin, showed the depth of their panel yet again with ten unique scorers.

The game got off to a slow but competitive start before Westport pulled 0-5 0-2 ahead inside the 12 minutes.

Garrymore were defiant but let themselves down with the amount of balls they dropped short.

Scores from Darren Quinn and Shane Nally left them a point behind at the break.

However, Westport weren’t long stretching that lead out after half-time, with Kilkelly, Keane and Mark Moran pushing their lead out to four.

A lovely over-the-shoulder effort from Joey Ferriter proved to be Garrymore’s only point from play in a second half where they had to do without full-forward Shane Nally.

An efficient and clinical Westport slowly sunk the Garrymore ship in the final quarter of the game, which ended with Paddy O’Malley gifting a kick-out to Shane Nally, who promptly stuck the ball in the net.

Read the full match report plus reaction from Kevin Keane and Martin Maloney in Tuesday’s Mayo News.

Westport: P O’Malley (0-1, 1 ’45); L Tunney, R Walsh, N McManamon; M Moran (0-1), Paul Lambert (0-1), Pat Lambert; L Keegan (0-1), B O’Malley; C Moran (0-1), K Kilkelly (0-2, 2f), O McLaughlin (0-1); A Kennedy (0-1), K Keane (0-3, 1f), R Geraghty

Subs: C McGraynor for Kennedy (36), F McLaughlin (0-1, 1f) for C Moran (52), L Shevlin for Keane (55), K McGuire for Paul Lambert (57), T Campion for M Moran (63)

Garrymore: B Lynskey; C O’Neill, D Dolan, C Lydon; J Oates, C McGrath, P Hession; G Golden, S Nally (1-2); D Quinn (0-2), C Slattery, J Commins; I Commins, T Nally (0-1), B Walsh

Subs: M Tierney for Walsh (19), J Ferriter (0-1) for T Nally (h-t, inj.), S Ferriter for Quinn (58, inj.)

Referee: J Walker (Cill Chomáin)