Nicky Rackard Cup round 2A: Mayo 0-22 Armagh 1-11
ARMAGH’S trip west to Ballina proved to be a difficult one as an in-form Mayo side ran out convincing 0-22 to 1-11 winners at James Stephens Park in round 2A of the Nicky Rackard Cup.
This was a competitive game with both sides showing well at different stages, but Mayo were superior in most sectors. Armagh - who beat Donegal in the week before - were always chasing the game, but had some impressive performers around the park with Ryan Gaffney, David Carvill and Nathan Curry among the more prominent players for the Orchard county.
Trailing 0-11 to 1-down at the break, Armagh needed to start the second half strongly but failed to do so, with Mayo completely dominant in the exchanges after the restart. However, Armagh scored four points without reply to muster some respectability on the scoreboard in the final minutes. Despite this, manager Sylvester McConnell said Mayo were the better side.
“It was a good performance by Mayo, our boys never really got going so fair play to Mayo, they put up a good score and there is nothing more you can say really,” said McConnell, whose side now play Longford in the quarter-finals.
The free-scoring home outfit had a main marksman in Kenny Feeney, with the full-forward bagging a personal total of 0-12. Five of Feeney’s points came in a first half where Mayo looked the better side for large periods. They tagged on three points in the opening 10 minutes, including a fine score form Kieran McDermott, and went into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead by the 25th minute with Sean Regan and dual star Keith Higgins among the scorers.
Armagh, playing into a slight breeze, were losing the midfield battle, but had good scores from Shea Gaffney and Conor Corvan to show for their early efforts, before a somewhat fortuitous goal, scrambled home by Ryan Gaffney in the 27th minute reduced arrears to two points (1-2 to 0-7). However, instead of excelling after this goal, Armagh saw Mayo reel off four points before half time, while the losers could only manage one further point through Conor Devlin before the break.
Trailing by five points at half-time, Armagh started the second half well with a point from James King, but Mayo clipped over five further points in the first 15 minutes of the half with Kieran McDermott’s effort the best.
Armagh were rapidly running out of ideas and though Ryan Gaffney pointed a free in the 55th minute they trailed 0-16 to 1-5 with 15 minutes remaining. Their hopes of a comeback were slim at best, but all hope evaporated when Stephen Reneghan was dismissed for picking up a second yellow card in the 63rd minute.
They did finish strongly with four points on the bounce, but overall manager McConnell acknowledged Mayo were the better side: “We have to regroup, we’ll have a game next week and we’ll see where we are and who knows, we might meet somewhere else further down the line.”
MATCH STATS
Mayo: D O’Brien; E Collins, G McManus, B Hunt; A Lyons, P O’Flynn, C Freeman (0-2); C Charlton, K McDermott (0-3); J McManus, K Higgins (0-2), S Regan (0-2); S Boland, K Feeney (0-12, 0-4 frees), D McTigue; Subs: C Scahill (0-1) for Regan (27), S Mulroy for McTigue (50), N Casey for McDermott (59), P Connell for Lyons (65), A Connolly for O’Flynn (69).
Armagh: S Doherty; C Clifford, A McGuinness, K McKernan (0-1); J King (0-1), N Curry, C Toner; J Corvan, S Renaghan; D Carvill (0-1), R Gaffney (1-3, 0-3 frees), P McKearney; D McKenna, C Corvan (0-2), S Gaffney (0-1); Subs: C Devlin (0-1) for S Gaffney (25), C O’Kane for McKearney (h-t), S Keenan (0-1) for McKenna (45), P McGrane for J Corvan (61).
Referee: P Murphy (Carlow).
