Mayo's minor journey comes to an end in Longford

ALL-IRELAND MINOR SEMI-FINAL

Mayo 1-6

Armagh 0-16

Longford

MAYO'S weekend of woe came to a shuddering end in Longford this evening when the minors were well beaten by Armagh before a crowd of 1,542 sun-splashed spectators. The group who had brought great joy to their followers all season came up short against a team who were dominant in almost every position and the scoreline tells its own story.

Thoughts of a place in the All-Ireland final had been clear and obvious after just 50 seconds when Andrew Quinn crashed in a superb goal for the Connacht champions, but that was as good as it got.

Once Armagh settled into the game they played as they pleased and had the game won long before the finish.

Mayo began explosively when Quinn shook the net before the dust had settled, but once full-forward Eoin Duffy got Armagh's first point after eleven miniutes they never looked back. The scores were level at half time, but at that stage Mayo could thank the crossbar at the scoreboard end for that state of affairs. On two occasions that fine piece of wood had kept out Armagh goal chances as the Ulster boys recovered from a terrible start to dominate the second quarter.

Mayo found it hard to cope with tall midfielder Jack Loughran, lively corner-forwrd Fionn Toale and his colleagues in the full-forward line Eoin Duffy and Shea Loughran.

The Connacht champions were dealt a blow after 27 minutes when midfielder Owen Loughney had to leave the field injured, but Mayo were well-positioned at the interval, level after playing poorly.

However, things went from bad to worse to awful in the minutes after the resumption as Armagh kicked six points without reply.

Mayo were taking water everywhere but there were momentary sparkles from Conor Coghill, Tom Hession, Kobe McDonald and Mark Noonan, however Armagh were playing as they pleased. Mayo's main scoring threats McDonald and Oisin Deane were given no room and no time and that was the end of the affair.

The scoreboard read 0-13 to 1-4 when Deane kicked Mayo's first point of the second half in the 50^th minute and at that stage Armagh were getting ready for the All-Ireland final. Mayo's second score of the half arrived in injury time from Westport's Jack O'Malley and by then, Armagh had 0-16 on the board.

The final whistle brought great disappointment with it, but the Mayo U17s of 2024 had given the county great service and many joyous moments which will long in the memory when sadness fades to the background.

A full match report, interview with joint-manager David Heaney and analysis will be carried in Tuesday's Mayo News.