Mayo beat Roscommon for third time to qualify for knock-outs

ALL-IRELAND SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Roscommon 1-15

Mayo 2-14

Hyde Park

THIS was a reminder of what championship football used to be – intense rivalry, tit-for-tat scores, big hits, controversial decisions, big saves, big men, Mayo getting goals and the crowd roaring their lungs out.

Mayo secured their place in the knock-out stages with a deserved and hard-earned win over a game home side who never threw in the towel despite looking beaten some distance from the finish.

Kevin McStay will take a lot of positives from today. His team scored 2-14 and arguably left another 2-5 behind them, some of his players showed a distinct return to form and aspects of their forward play was better than it has been for some time.

However, he will be thoroughly disappointed with the dismissal of Fergal Boland in injury time. The decision to send the Aghamore man off looked extremely harsh from the press-box and Boland's incredulity at the decision told its own story.

There might have been only two points between the teams at the end, but there's no doubt the better team won. Mayo forged ahead after half time and were six clear going into the last few minutes, but Roscommon refused to yield and stayed in the race until the end.

The first half was worth the admission fee for the 8,597 paying customers. The teams were level six times in the first 35 minutes as first one side and then the other, looked for a decisive advantage.

Mayo had most of the ball and at times, their more patient play yielded results, but there were also occasions when too much stalling allowed Roscommon the time to block the lanes in front of their own posts.

That said, the guests were playing into the wind and it had an impact. When Mayo clicked they cut through the hosts a few times, with Eoghan McLaughlin and Darren McHale prominent in this regard. McHale had a glorious goal chance just before half time when he got on the end of a well-worked move but his effort somehow went wide of the post.

Seven other Mayo efforts also drifted wide while Roscommon were much more efficient at the other end. They stayed with their guests despite having less possession and seven different home boys got on the scoresheet before the break.

Mayo were much the better team in the third quarter and gradually pulled away from the home side who appeared to be running out of ideas. Padraig O'Hora had kept Conor Cox relatively quiet, and Donnacha McHugh had shadowed Enda Smith all over the pitch while Ryan O'Donoghue, McLaughlin, Aidan O'Shea, Jordan Flynn, McHale and Matthew Ruane were deciding the issue.

Conor Loftus came off the bench for the injured David McBrien and made a big impact. He was involved three times in a move which ended with O'Donoghue fouled for a penalty after 58 minutes. The Belmullet attacker picked himself up and drilled home the spot-kick to put Mayo five clear, 1-12 to 0-10.

The writing was on the wall for Roscommon at that stage, but they kept moving forward with Brian Stack inspiring them from the back. Two place-kicks from Conor Cox cut the gap to three after 66 minutes before a flowing move ending with Ruane and O'Donoghue found McHugh at the back post and he flicked it to the net to seal the deal – or so we thought.

A minute later, Dylan Ruane was taken down in the Mayo goalmouth and Cox planted the penalty in the bottom corner to leave a kick of a ball between them.

To continue the see-saw nature of proceedings Mayo went stright up the other end for Conroy to stretch the lead to four, but the drama wasn't over. There was still time for Boland to be sent off and points to arrive from Donie Smith and Ultan Harney, before the final whistle sent Mayo into knock-outs and onto the next challenge against Dublin in two weeks time.

A full match report, after-match reaction, comment and colour will be carried in Tuesday's Mayo News.