Mayo had to come back from two points down at the start of the second half of extra time in the Sligo GAA Centre of Excellence on a wet and miserable hour of football on Saturday to earn a draw in the first ever North West Cup final.
The fact that the game went to extra time, never mind there was discussions of more extra time should have never arose as Mayo shot themselves in the foot in a game they looked to have wrapped up as it ticked into injury time. With time up, Mayo were leading by four points and looking home and hosed, but they managed to turn over the ball to the Donegal attack after they tried to work the ball through the hands down the field. Donegal sub Hugh Boyle won the turnover and spotted Matthew Flanagan off his line and he lobbed the ball over the Balla custodian into the back of the next to cut the gap back to just a single point. A minute later James Kelly was shown a second yellow card for a foul out on the right hand side of the field and John Campbell did what was required and put the ball between the uprights to level the game up at 1-7 each after an hour of tough and niggling football that saw both sides finish up with 14 men each at the end of normal time.
Donegal went into a two point lead at the break in extra time with Campbell and Daniel Gallagher each scoring a point in a ten minute period their side dominated. Mayo did manage to haul themsleves level with two unanswered points in the final ten minute period from full forward Brian Reape and sub Mickey Murray. There was some confusion as to what would happen when the full time whistle was blown after extra time, with some talk of another two halfs of five mintues each, but with light fading badly and the conditions getting more miserable it was decided to do it all again another day.
Mayo will feel they left this one behind them, but it was a good work out for Michael Solan’s charges and he’ll have learned plenty from it. One man who stood out was Liam Irwin, with the Breaffy man looking to be in great shape and he finished the day with five points to his name. He was a threat throughout and constantly won the ball that was delivered into him, despite some tough attention from Donegal defenders and the conditions. Irwin was also a key man in Mayo’s goal which was one to remember.
Wing back Barry Duffy picked out Irwin with a raking pass 12 minutes in, Duffy put on the afterburners and kept up his run and Irwin played the ball back to the Balla man on the run and he hammered it home to the back of Paddy Byrne’s net without breaking stride. That score put Mayo into a 1-1 to 0-0 lead with Irwin grabbing Mayo’s first point eight minutes in.
Mayo went in leading by 1-3 to 0-4 at the break with Irwin kicking another point and Duffy also raising the white flag in the opening half. Donegal responded well from going four points down early on with corner forward Calum Gallagher scoring two points from frees and Caolan McGonagle and Conor O’Donnell adding one point each.
Donegal cut the gap back to a single point inside the first minute of the second half when John Campbell pointed a free from closr range. Irwin kept Mayo ticking over with points from frees in the 36th and 38th minute with Hugh Boyle responding for Donegal. Irwin spilt the posts from another free in the 47th minute to push the gap back out to three and seven minutes from time he stretched that lead to four points. Donegal were at this stage reduced to 14 men after Eamonn McGrath had been sent for an early shower and Mayo looked to be home and hosed, but how wrong was everyone who thought that.
Scores
Mayo: L Irwin (0-5, 4f ), B Duffy (1-1 ), B Reape (0-2, 1f ), M Murray (0-1 )
Donegal: H Boyle (1-1 ), J Campbell (0-3, 3f ), C Gallagher (0-2, 2f ), C McGonagle (0-1 ), D Gallagher (0-1 ), C O’Donnell (0-1 )
Mayo: M Flanaghan; D Kenny, S Cunniffe, C Harrison; B Duffy, J Kelly, S Akram; V Roughneen, P Pendergast; F Boland, M Ruane; J Lyons, B Reape, L Irwin. Subs: M Murray for Prendergast, E O’Donoghue for Kenny, C Barrett for Roughneen, TJ Byrne (To bring Mayo back to 15 for extra time )
Donegal: P Byrne; J Quinn, J O’Brien, D Monagle; E McGrath, C Morrison, N Friel; L McHugh, C McGonagle; C Bonner, M Coyle, C O’Donnell; C Gallagher, A Neely, J Campbell. Subs: D Gallagher, H Boyle, M Langan, N Harley, D Curran, N Gavigan, J Scalley (To bring Donegal back to 15 for extra time ), C Morrison, M Coyle, N Friel
Ref: Barry Judge (Sligo ).
