Mayo remain winless in Division 3A of the National Hurling League, following their narrow defeat on the road against Fermanagh last Sunday, going down on a scoreline of 2-18 to 2-16 to the Erne men in St. Joseph’s Park, Ederney.
This is still a Mayo team very much in experimentation mode with their Tooreen contingent still mostly absent, bar Daniel Huane who captained the side from the middle of the park - but with a tough game coming up against Armagh on the road the weekend after this, their new management team of Dave McConn and Tom Phillips will be conscious that they will need to garner a win in that game to pick up some momentum.
Last weekend after 20 minutes, Mayo, who had been the better team during the first half of the game, had a 1-6 to 0-4 lead thanks to a fine goal by Adrian Phillips. Fermanagh replied quickly and took the lead for the first time thanks to a goal from Jimmy Tormey.
Mayo immediately responded as Adrian Phillips produced an even better finish for his second goal, an overhead pull that left Fermanagh goalkeeper Mark Curry without a chance to stop.
Mayo put together an ending to the first half and went in leading 2-11 to 1-11 at the break, but lost Phillips along the way to injury. Mayo didn't get moving at all in the second half as they would have liked and they were punished by their hosts, who outscored them 1-7 to 0-5 over the final 35 minutes.
Jimmy Tormey scored a second goal for his side in the 44th minute to give Fermanagh the lead, which they would not relinquish. Cormac Phillips' accuracy from frees did manage to keep Mayo within striking distance, finishing up with a tally of 0-10 all from placed balls and in the last seconds of regulation time, Kealan Gallagher's shot that would have given Mayo the victory was brilliantly saved by Fermanagh's goalie Mark Curry to clinch the points for Fermanagh.
Speaking after the game to Mayo GAA TV, Dave McConn said: "We fought a hard fight, but obviously the game last week took a little bit out of us. We thought we had overcome it, we started well but as the second half went on we began to linger a bit and quite honestly, we just didn't have the wherewithal and we simply played badly in the fourth quarter. Not good enough, we got our chances, we missed a few chances, but quite honestly we didn't deserve to win today."
Mayo remain on one point from their two games so far, that coming after their opening day draw with Roscommon in Castlebar; while it is far from the ideal start for a side who would be eyeing up promotion back out of this division, if their reinforcements return in the next few weeks, they will be confident of being able to make their way up the league ladder over their remaining three games against Armagh, Monaghan and Louth.
