Mayo 5-8
Galway 2-11
(AET )
Goals win games, but heart and fight won this game for the Mayo minors in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon. When the game was there to be won for either side, Mayo dug deep and stepped up to the mark against a talented Galway side. Captain Stephen Coen led from the back, along with man of the match Diarmuid O'Connor in the middle of the park, while Conor Loftus and Tommy Conroy were two of the stand out forwards, but not the only ones. Liam Irwin kicked five points from frees over the 80 minutes and showed great maturity to shake off the pressure of missing two scorable frees in the first half of extra time, to kick two pressure ones in the second half to keep Mayo's noses in front.
It was the Glaswegians who looked like they had the momentum going into the extra time after the hauled back a three point deficit in the closing stages thanks to a Michael Daly free, which was followed by a 45' from Eoin McCormack and another clutch point deep injury time to send the game to the extra 20 minutes. Those scores were only a very small part of one of those crazy, exciting games that the minor grade throws up so often.
Mayo had the aid of a very strong breeze in the first half and started brightly with Liam Irwin kicking frees either side of a Conor Loftus point inside the opening 12 minutes. But from this point on the game veered off the expected course as Galway hit Mayo for two goals from the 14th to 17th minute. The first goal was a super strike from corner forward Niall Lee who crashed the ball past Mark Mulligan from the 13 meter line after good build up play involving McCormack and Richard Fahy. Three minutes later Peter Cooke bundled the ball over the line from close range to turn the game on it's head. But Mayo were up for whatever course the game took and with ten minutes to go in the half, they grabbed the first of their five goal haul. Diarmuid O'Connor launched in a long ball that Galway goalkeeper, James Healy could only parry and Tommy Conroy flicked to the back of the net from close range. Galway hit back with points from Enda Tierney and Paul Mannion. With six minutes left in the half, Conroy had chance to bag his second goal, but his effort came off the post and Darragh Doherty stabbed it to the back of the net from close range to leave Mayo leading by 2-3 to 2-2. That lead didn't last long as Peter Cooke leveled it up for Galway almost immediately and the same man pushed Galway back into the lead with a pointed free shortly afterwards. However, Mayo went into the half time break on level pegging with Conroy kicking a good score under pressure, just before the whistle.
With the strong breeze favoring Galway in the second half, Mayo looked like they were going to be under a lot of pressure if they were going to go home with the win. But they dug in and worked tirelessly, with O'Connor and his midfield partner Val Roughneen wrestling control of the middle third of the field. After ten minutes of the half, Mayo were leading by 2-6 to 2-5 thanks to points from Irwin and Conroy and that's the way the score remained for the next 17 minutes until Galway finally leveled it up thanks to a Richard Fahy point.
Mayo thought they had won it when they plundered their third goal three minutes from time though Cian Hanley who punched a ball across the goal mouth from Tommy Conroy from close range. But this game wasn't following the normal script and Galway dug deep themselves and reeled off three points in the closing stages to send the contest to extra time.
As the bodies got tired following a tough 60 minutes previously, a little bit of the accuracy went out of the game with both sides scoring only once each in the first half of extra-time, but crucially, Mayo scored their fourth goal through Conor Loftus, while all Galway could muster was a point.
The second half of extra time saw Liam Irwin kick two crucial pointed frees, before Tommy Conroy bagged his second and Mayo's fifth goal to put the full stop on a thrilling encounter.
Mayo- M Mulligan, E Doran, S Cunniffe, D Kenny, R Finn, S Coen, M Hall, V Roughneen, D O’Connor , B Walsh, C Loftus (1-1 ), C Hanley (1-0 ), T Conroy (2-2 ), L Irwin (0-5f1f ), D Doherty (1-0 ).
Subs: S Conlon for Finn (24m ), C Byrne for Doherty (50m ), S Burke for Walsh (54m ), M Plunkett for Hanley (59m ).
Galway: J Healy, L Burke, C Reilly, B Shaughnessey, N McDonagh, D Moran, C Brady, R Fahy (0-1 ), E Tierney (0-1 ), J Lyons, M Daly (0-1(f ), P Cooke (1-2 (1f ), N Lee (1-1 ), E McCormack (0-4, 3f, 1 ‘45 ), P Mannion (0-1 ).
Subs:D Corbett for McDonagh (48m ), J Donnellan for Lee (52m ), S Lawless for Cooke (55m ), Lyons (60m ). N Lee for Brady (59m ), C Raftery for Mannion (79m ),
Referee- R McBrien (Leitrim ).
