Kerry 1-18
Mayo 2-14
Despite leading by a point at the break Mayo went down to Kerry in their opening game of the Allianz National Hurling League Division 3A on Sunday. Mayo led by 1-8 to 0-10 at the turn around, but a goal five minutes into the second half from John Mike Dooley was the turning point of the contest. Kerry pushed themselves four points clear on 70 minutes thanks to a point from Mike Conway, and that turned out to be the winning score. Mayo never gave up the ghost, and deep in injury time Keith Higgins found substitute Kenny Robinson who found the back of the Kerry net to close the gap to a point. But it was too little too late for Martin Brennan and Pete Finnerty’s men as Kerry held on for the win. Mayo will look to get their league campaign back on track on Saturday when they have to travel to Crossmaglen again to take on Armagh in a refixture of their opening round game which was called off due to bad weather a fortnight ago.
Mayo: D O'Brien; B Higgins, K Moran, S Hoban (0-1 ); E Madigan, P Barrett, C Ryan; D McConn (0-1 ), S Hunt; K Higgins (0-2 ), D McDonnell, D Dowling; N Murphy, R Cullinane (1-3,2f ), M Devaney. Subs: B Moran (0-4,4f ) for Murphy, K Feeney for Devaney (63 ), K Robinson (1-0 ) for Dowling.
Kerry: JB O Halloran; C Harris, A Healy, A Keane; E Sheehy L Boyle, T Murnane (0-1 ); M Conway (0-2 ), J Griffin; D O'Connell, G O'Brien, S Brick (0-12,7f ); M Boyle (0-1 ), JM Dooley (1-0 ), S Nolan (0-2 ), Subs: J McCarthy for Sheehy (52 ); J Flaherty for Nolan ( 60 ).
Ref: P Greene (Galway ).
