Garry’ win southern shootout
In one of the most eagerly awaited games in round two of the senior championship on Saturday night, Garrymore hosted a Davitts side that made the short trip from Ballindine. The visitors had picked up two points from round one thanks to a win over Claremorris, while Garrymore had failed to fire in the second half on the road to Breaffy and ended up coming home pointless from West Mayo.
Davitts made the early progress in the game and led 1-3 to 0-2 after 11 minutes with Aidan McTigue finding the back of the net after a Michael Conroy effort bounced up in the air off the top of the crossbar and the Davitts number 15 was the quickest to react and flicked the ball past Brian Lynskehy in the Garry’ goal.
The home side hit the back of the net themselves three minutes later, when Caolan Crowe finished to the back of the net after being picked out by Trevor Nally and from there on in Garrymore took control of the game until the median whistle at which time they led by 1-8 to 1-3.
Davitts put it up to their hosts well for long periods of the second half, but they could never really get back with in proper touching distance of their hosts, with a three point gap at the midway stage of the half the closest they got. Garrymore driven on by Shane and Trevor Nally, along with other impressive performances from Mark Tierney, Caolan Crowe and David Dolan had to much for their guests.
Aghamore edge Holly-Carra in tough encounter
It was a hard hitting and sometimes controversial encounter in Hollymount on Saturday night, where Aghamore went home from south Mayo with the points following a win over Hollymount-Carramore.
The homeside raced into an early 0-3 to 0-0 lead with Darren Coen, Conor Keane and Stephen Coen all hitting the target in the opening four minutes. It took Aghamore a while to find their barings and they hit their first score just before ten minutes had elapsed when Fergal Boland slung one over the bar. The hosts, energetic and hard pressing defensive play, made it very difficult for Aghamore to create chances early on. They were trailing by a point with 15 mintues gone when referee Declan Corcoran awarded a penalty for a foul on Conor Lyons, but after consulting with his umpires he decided the foul had occurred just outside the area, to the consternation of the Aghamore faithful. Freeman tapped the ball over the bar from the resulting free.
Both sides swapped scores over the next few minutes and it looked Hollymount-Carramroe should have had a penalty four mintues from the short whistle when Kevin Costello was upended on his way to goal, but the referee decided otherwise. Two late points from Fergal Boland saw Aghamore go in leading 0-7 to 0-6 at the turn around.
Hollymount-Carramore had the game level with 15 minutes left in the game at 0-8 a piece and it was all to play for and Aghamore were the ones to step up to the plate, Alan Freeman hit two points from frees in quick succession and with 54 minutes gone on the clock, Brendan Harrsion was on hand to fire the ball to the back of the net and seal the outcome of this contest. The east Mayo men saw out the final few minutes to hold on for a 1-13 to 0-9 win.
Breaffy overcome Claremorris challenge
On Sunday lunchtime, rank outsiders Claremorris made it very tough for last years beaten county finalists Breaffy, before a final quarter surge saw the home side through to their second championship win of the season.
With ten minutes gone in the second half, Claremorris had overturned a four point deficit at the break to lead 1-9 to 1-7. Breaffy went in leading at the turn around thanks to a goal from Rory Martyn and four points from Liam Irwin, while the Claremorris attack was led by James Shaughnessey who also kicked four points in the opening 30 minutes.
Both Shaughnessey and Irwin were on fire in this game with Irwin finishing with a personal tally of 1-8, 1-2 of that coming from play and Shaugnessey ending with a personal tally of 0-9 (7f ).
Claremorris early second half fight back was helped by a 37th minute goal from John Hutton who reacted quickest after Shaughnessey’s effort came back off the upright and he was all along in front of goal without a defender near him. That score put Declan Ronaldson’s side into a 1-9 to 1-7 lead and kickstarted Breaffy back into life. Irwin reeled off two points from frees and Conor O’Shea tagged on one from play, before Peter Ford’s side landed their second goal of the game when Matthew Ruane got on the end of a flowing move that saw the ball pass through four pairs of hands before Ruane finshed to the net. Breaffy kept up the pressure over the closing ten minutes and five minutes from time Irwin hit their third goal after Rory Martyn had done well to pick the ball out of the sky from a raking Aidan O’Shea pass, before doing the hard work drawing in the defenders to create the space for Irwin to finish from close range.
Ballintubber get back to winning ways
After being turned over at home by Hollymount-Carramore in round one of the championship, Ballintubber got back to winning ways on Saturday night when they saw off a disappointing Charlestown Sarsfields side by 17 points in Clogher. Despite missing experienced trio, Jason Gibbons, Cathal Hallinan and Padraic O’Connor, Ballintubber had it far to easy in this one.
At the break the Abbeysiders led by 0-9 to 0-2, with Cillian O’Connor hitting 0-3 over the opening 30 minutes and other scores coming from Bryan Walsh (2 ), Alan Dillon, Alan Plunkett (2 ) and Damien Coleman. Ballintubber also lined out with Diarmuid O’Connor in a wing back role from which he scored a point from over the hour.
In the second half it was more of the same for Ballintubber with Cillian O’Connor and Bryan Walsh both finding the back of the net as they eased out to a 2-17 to 1-4 win to set them up for a do or die battle with Aghamore on the final day of the group stages of the championship.
Deel Rovers win northern battle
In the north Mayo derby, Crossmolina Deel Rovers were the ones who came out victorious in after a tough low scoring affair in James Stephens Park. At the break, Crossmolina led by 1-2 to 0-2 thanks to Ger Haran’s goal and they were able to hang on in the second half for a 1-7 to 0-7 win with Sean Kelly’s point taking key to Joe Keane’s side picking up the win. The other game in that group ended up with a defending champions Castlebar Mitchels running out comprehensive 5-10 to 0-9 winners over Ballinrobe in south Mayo on Saturday night,
Andy lights up the scoring charts
There was one man who lit up the scoring charts this weekend and that was Andy Moran who kicked 3-7 in a 5-11 to 2-9 win for Ballaghaderreen over Kiltane on Sunday morning. Moran kicked 2-5 in the first half alone which ended with Ballagh leading 3-9 to 1-4, with Gavin Conway getting the third goal. Ballagh’ just added on the 2-2 in the second half with Moran scoring 1-2 in the final 30 minutes of the game and Conway chipping in with another three pointer.
The other game in this group which was the final senior championship game of the weekend saw Knockmore record a big 2-16 to 0-5 win over Ballyhaunis in east Mayo, at the break Knockmore led 1-11 to 0-1 and they coasted home to victory in the second half of the game.
Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship Round Two
Group One
Garrymore 1-13 Davitts 1-10
Breaffy 3-15 Claremorris 1-11
Group Two
Ballintubber 2-17 Charlestown 1-4
Hollymount-Carramore 0-9 Aghamore 1-13
Group Three
Ballinrobe 0-9 Castlebar Mitchels 5-10
Ballina Stephenites 0-7 Crossmolina Deel Rovers 1-7
Group Four
Ballaghaderreen 5-11 Kiltane 2-9
Ballyhaunis 0-5 Knockmore 2-16
