Connacht SFC quarter-final: London 0-9 Mayo 2-16
MAYO cruised into the semi-final of the Connacht Championship with a 13-point win over London at a packed Irish TV Grounds in Ruislip on Sunday.
Bidding for a sixth provincial title in a row, the Westerners were slightly rusty with their shooting, hitting 15 wides over the course of the match, but they still ran out 2-16 to 0-9 winners.
Evan Regan was instrumental for the visitors on his Championship debut, hitting seven points (five frees), five of which came in the first-half.
Other than Regan, Mayo manager Stephen Rochford named an experienced side, with 10 of his starting team having also started last year's All-Ireland semi-final replay defeat to Dublin.
Although they were some way off the form they'll need to be in if they're to finally end their All-Ireland drought, Mayo's strength in depth was emphasised by the 1-5 they tallied from the bench.
To their credit, London started brightly with a short fist-passing game, retaining possession well from their kick-outs. Indeed, they opened the scoring with a point from a close-range Scott Conroy free.
Mayo were then dealt a blow when Cillian O'Connor was black carded for clattering Philip Butler, but his replacement Conor Loftus didn't take long to announce himself to the game.
The visitors had recovered from their early struggles to hit four points without reply, when Loftus palmed in from close range with 19 minutes on the clock.
From there, Mayo settled into their game and Loftus followed up his goal with a point moments later, before Eoin Murray replied for London with a delightful score to earn a round of applause from the 3,000-strong crowd.
However, Mayo were pretty much out of sight on 24 minutes as Aidan O'Shea nicked possession from another short London kick-out, before feeding Jason Doherty, who rounded Exiles keeper Gavin McEvoy and slotted into the empty net.
O'Shea followed that up with his only point of the game but London rallied to hit three unanswered points through Adrian Moyles (two, one free) and Liam Gavaghan.
Nonetheless, they still went into the break 2-8 to 0-5 down, and they never looked like eating into that nine-point deficit after the restart.
Gavaghan's second point of the game was perhaps the brightest moment of the second period for London, as he charged at the Mayo backs and forced them to back off, before drilling over the bar.
Mark Gottsche's long-range free was also a bright moment, but Mayo were fairly comfortable, despite London seemingly matching them for fitness if nothing else.
Mayo's second-half substitutes Andy Moran and Alan Dillon kept things ticking over with three points from play between them, as the Westerners saw out the game relatively unscathed.
Stephen Rochford admits his side were wayward with their shooting, but is taking positives from the 18 scores they still managed to rack up ahead of their semi-final meeting with Galway.
“We took the game quite serious, but our execution was nowhere near what we'd expect it to be for further on in the Championship,” he said. “But, look, it's only the first round and we're building things here, and there's always going to be things to work on.”
Meanwhile, Ciaran Deely – also taking charge of his first Championship game as a county manager – declared himself pleased with his side's performance, considering the odds were stacked firmly against them.
“I thought there were aspects of our performance that were very good,” said the Wexford native.
“Some of our point-taking at times was excellent. Obviously we're a bit disappointed with a couple of mistakes in the first-half to allow them in for the goals, but I thought apart from the goals we were really in the game, so I'm proud of my team because Mayo are a serious team.”
MATCH STATS
London: G McEvoy; P Butler, C Carty, Ciaran Dunne; Colin Dunne, D Ryan, D McGreevy; J Moran, L Gavaghan (0-2); A Moyles (0-4, 2f), M Gottsche (0-1, 1f), C Coyne; E Murray (0-1), S Conroy (0-1, 1f), P O'Hara.Subs: L Mulvey on for E Murray (45mins), C Healy on for C Dunne (45m), M Walsh on for C Coyne (63mins), C Og Greene on for S Conroy (63mins), S Hickey on for P O'Hara (67mins), C O'Neill on for Ciaran Dunne (67mins).
Mayo: R Hennelly (0-1, '45); B Harrison, K Keane, K Higgins; L Keegan, C Boyle, P Durcan; S Coen (0-1), J Gibbons; K McLoughlin (0-1), A O'Shea 0-1, J Doherty (1-0), E Regan (0-7, 5f), C O'Connor, C O'Shea.Subs: C Loftus (1-2) on for C O'Connor (black card 14mins), S Nally for C Boyle (48mins) A Moran (0-2) for C O'Shea (48mins), C Carolan on for J Doherty (52mins), A Dillon (0-1) on for J Gibbons (58mins), D Drake on for L Keegan (61mins)
Referee: D O'Mahony (Tipperary)
Man of the match: Evan Regan.
