Mayo 1-13
Fingal 0-9
Mayo picked up their second win on the trot in the Allianz Hurling League on Sunday after a seven point win over Fingal in McHale Park. The game which was played as a curtain raiser to the Mayo v Kerry football game, gave Murt Connolly's men a chance to impress the greater Mayo GAA public who had come to see the senior footballers in action. Mayo were comprehensive winners in the end and had the game wrapped up at half time when they led by nine points. Playing into a strong wind and in the second half they only managed to tack on three more points to their first half total. Fingal to their credit showed a lot more fight in the terminal period and only for some wayward shooting which saw them hit nine wides in the half they could have closed the gap even more before the end. Kenny Feeney was the main man for Mayo hitting six of Mayo's total all of them from placed balls. For Fingal Martin Ormonde was the main scoring threat, he contributed five points over the seventy minutes with sub James Sheridan chipping in with two of his own. The dip in the second half performance is something that Connolly will want to shake out of his side before they face into greater challenges when the Christy Ring Cup comes around in the summer.
Mayo got off to a dream start when a Eoin Madigan played in Nail Murphy who shot from 21 meters out, his shot hit one of the Fingal players on it's way to goal wrong footing Willie Burke in goal and trickling over the line. The goal start gave Mayo the prefect platform to set up a great first half for Murt Connelly's men who went into the break leading by 1-10 to 0-4. Kenny Feeney who took over free taking duty from the absent Keith Higgins clipped over five points from placed balls in the opening 35 minutes. He was ably assisted by the likes of Brian Higgins who chipped in with two fine scores, while Eoin Madigan was a constant threat to the Fingal defence in the opening period got his reward with a good score from play. The Mayo defence even got in on the act with Shane Morley and Patrick Connell each adding a point. Fingal's scores came from three frees from centre half forward Martin Ormonde and fine score from Ross McGarry.
Mayo:D O'Brien; S Connell, A Connolly, G Henry; S Morley (0-1 ), P Connell (0-1 ), C Ryan; D McConn, B Higgins (0-2 ); N Murphy (1-0 ), E Madigan (0-1 ), K Feeney (0-6, 6f ); D McTighe (0-1 ), D McDonnell, S Hoban (0-1 ). Subs: M Morley, B Hunt, D Gallagher, P O'Grady, A Brennan
Fingal: W Burke; P Coyne, R Sheridan, S Markey; M Cussen, D Vaughan, A Morris; R McGarry (0-1 ), D De Burca; A McInerney, (0-1 ) M Ormonde (0-5,4f ), P McAllister; P Daly, C O'Mahony, G Dillon. Subs: C Sheridan (0-2 ), A Richardson, N Ring, C Doyle
Ref: C Browne (Galway )
