Galway fall short against Mayo in Connacht U20 Football Championship
GALWAY tasted their first defeat of the Connacht U20 Football Championship, going down 3-16 to 1-12 against Mayo on Wednesday evening at McHale Park in Castlebar.
Kevin Johnson’s side came into the game knowing that only a win would secure their place in the Connacht final, but the contest began to slip from their grasp during the opening half.
Galway now turn their attention to a Connacht semi-final clash with Roscommon next Wednesday April 22nd, while the winner faces Mayo in the provincial final in two weeks.
After three wins on the bounce this defeat comes as a setback to this Galway side but they will need to take the learnings and regroup if they are to reach their first Connacht final for the first since 2023.
Thirteen wides and some costly turnovers proved decisive; this is something Johnson and his management team can hope his side can improve on moving forward.
“Disappointing, I suppose in the first half for the first ten minutes the gameplan was really good, we had a lot of possession. From our side, we gave a couple of cheap two point scores and then all of a sudden, with the two-pointer now, the scoreline can become two, four, six very fast. When you have players like Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald, you are just giving them oxygen at times, we were cheaply turned over,” said Galway U20 Football manager Kevin Johnson.
“I was very pleased with the third quarter, we really went aggressive on the kickout, we had a lot of opportunities, again the execution on the shot let us down a bit,” added Johnson.
Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne impressively pulled the strings in attack for the winners scoring 2-9 between them. Galway senior footballer Ciaran Mulhern limped off with an injury in the second half, but Johnson confirmed to the assembled media that it is nothing serious.
Mayo delivered a sharp and clinical first-half display, taking a commanding 2-10 to 0-4 lead into the break. Despite enjoying spells of possession and creating opportunities, Galway struggled to cope with Mayo’s dominant purple patch.
Darragh Beirne got the scoring underway with a two-point free, though Galway quickly responded through Ross Coen and Cian Mitchell to draw level early on. However, shooting inaccuracies soon crept into Galway’s play, as they registered four wides inside the opening ten minutes while facing a strong breeze.
Mayo capitalised, with scores from Oisín Deane followed by two-pointers from Joey Holmes, Kobe McDonald, and Beirne pushing them into a 0-9 to 0-2 lead. A free from Ciaran Mulhern briefly reduced the gap, but Mayo soon took firm control.
The first goal came when Conor Meaney’s long kickout found Kobe McDonald, who surged through the defence and he finished clinically to the net. McDonald struck again five minutes before halftime, linking up with Tom Lydon before calmly slotting past Galway goalkeeper Brian Carroll.
Mikey Mulryan ended the Tribesmen's scoring drought late in the half, but they still trailed by twelve points at the interval.
Galway made changes at the restart, introducing Brian O’Malley and Niall De Paor, and showed renewed intent early in the second half. Scores from Matthew Collins, Mulryan, and Mulhern offered some hope, while Collins was denied twice by an alert Mayo defence.
However, a run of five wides by the 40th minute proved costly, allowing Mayo to regain control through further scores from McDonald and Deane. Mayo’s third goal followed when Tom Lydon set up Dylan Flynn, who blasted the ball into the roof the net.
Mulryan, Galway’s standout performer on a difficult night, kept battling and converted two successive two-point frees before adding a late consolation goal after breaking through the Mayo defence.
Late points from Beirne and Colm Lynch sealed a comprehensive ten-point victory for Keith Higgins’ side.
GALWAY: B Carroll; D Hughes, O Kelly, V Gill; C Rafferty, R McGrath, C Mitchell (0-1); S McGlinchey, P Keaney; C Mulhern (0-2, 0-1 f), R Coen (0-1), M Ó Domhnaill; E Ó Cualáin, M Mulryan (1-7, 2 tpf, 0-2 f Captain), M Collins (0-1).
SUBS: B O’Malley for Rafferty (ht), N De Paor for Ó Domhnáill (ht). K Joyce for Ó Cualáin (39), C Hynes for Mulhern (49, injury), H Keady for McGlinchey (58).
MAYO: C Meaney; J Lavelle, T Lambert, A Coggins; C Lynch, R Mortimer, J Moyles; D Staunton, J Holmes (0-2, 0-1 tp); A Quinn, K McDonald (2-3, 0-2, 0-1 tp), D Flynn (1-0); D Berine (0-6, 1 tpf, 1 tp, 0-2 f), O Deane (0-3), T Lydon.
SUBS: D Neary for Holmes (53), N Roddy for Lydon (55), Y Coghill for Coggins (58), S Cunningham for Staunton (60).
REEFEREE: B Judge (Sligo).