Gaelic Games

Galway defeat Mayo to book place in Connaught Under-21 final

Kevin Comer’s man-of-the-match display key to Galway’s victory as Mayo’s abysmal run continues

Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor: side was dealt a severe blow when the senior player was black-carded after just 20 minutes. Photograph: Inpho
Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor: side was dealt a severe blow when the senior player was black-carded after just 20 minutes. Photograph: Inpho
Sun Mar 22 2015 - 19:49

Galway 1-12 Mayo 0-11

Mayo’s abysmal record at under-21 level in Connaught continued on Saturday at McHale Park, Castlebar, where they crashed out to Galway who booked a final meeting with Roscommon.

A star-studded performance from man-of-the-match Kevin Comer was the key to Galway's victory as they stamped their authority on this game in the first half in particular.

Mayo were dealt a severe blow when senior player Diarmuid O'Connor was black-carded after just 20 minutes, while Galway also lost Johnny Heaney to a black card in the first half.

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Galway dominated the first quarter where they opened up a three-point lead, 0-4 to 0-1, after Comer (two), and Michael Day and Gary Kelly were on target, Mayo’s only reply was a Darren McHale point.

The only goat of the game came from Comer on 23 minutes as he got in behind the Mayo defence to fire a rocket to the Mayo net. Substute TJ Byrne who came in for O'Connor narrowed the gap to two points after firing over a delightful point, but it was Galway who finished the half the stronger adding two more points from Comer and Eamon Brannigan to leave them 1-6 to 0-5.

Galway continued to have the better of the exchanges after the resumption and added six more points in the third quarter, two each from Comer and Gary Kelly and one from Conor Cunningham and Brannigan. However, in the final quarter, despite keeping Galway scoreless, they could only muster another two points, both from frees by Durcan, which proved too little too late.

In the closing minutes things got worse for Mayo when Patrick Durcan was red.

GALWAY: T O'Malley; E Kerins, J Wyndam, K Molloy; J Heaney, A Nolan, L Silke; M O'Dea (0-1), D Corbett; E Tierney, D Comer (1-5 , one free), C Brady; M Daly, G Kelly (0-3, two frees), E Brannigan (0-2). Subs: C. Cunningham (0-1) for Heaney (bc 20 mins), E Finnerty for Daly (34 mins), D Wall for Kelly (40 mins), P Mannion for Comer (bc 50 mins), J Donnellan for Brannigan (53 mins).
MAYO: M Flanagan; M Hall, D Kenny, J Stretton; P Durcan, S Coen (0-2), S Regan; D O'Connor, V Roughneen; M Ruane, A Gallagher (0-2), D McHale (0-1); K Lynch, C Loftus (0-1), J Durcan (0-4, frees). Subs: M Plunkett for McHale (17 mins), C Burke for Lynch (20 mins), TJ Byrne (0-1) for O'Connor (bc 23), E Lavin for Roughneen (45 mins), B Reape for Plunkett (46 mins), E Doran for Stretton (50 mins).

Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon).