Football

Honours even after error-strewn All-Ireland SFC final

 Dublin substitute Paul Mannion tries to get a shot away despite the attentions of Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor during yesterday’s drawn All-Ireland final at Croke Park.   Picture by Colm O’Reilly
 Dublin substitute Paul Mannion tries to get a shot away despite the attentions of Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor during yesterday’s drawn All-Ireland final at Croke Park.   Picture by Colm O’Reilly  Dublin substitute Paul Mannion tries to get a shot away despite the attentions of Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor during yesterday’s drawn All-Ireland final at Croke Park.   Picture by Colm O’Reilly

THE best of teams survived the worst of times. The so-called chokers cleared their collective throat and roared back to rescue a replay.

This was a game of contradictions, with neither team quite having the final say.

Although the general consensus was that Dublin ‘got away with’ this one, as Mayo were the better team on the day, it was the Westerners who needed three late scores to level matters.

Stephen Rochford’s side deserve enormous credit for bouncing back from the devastating bad luck of conceding not one but two first half own goals, put past the helpless David Clarke by Kevin McLoughlin and Colm Boyle.

Those scores were particularly hard to take as Mayo’s defensive effort was tiring even to watch. The consequence of their tenacious tackling was that only two of Dublin’s stellar starting forwards scored from play, and the second of those, from Diarmuid Connolly, came as late as the 68th minute.

Yet error-strewn and bizarre as this final was, it turned out to be an epic encounter, right up to the ninth minute of added time at the end of the second half.

Mayo captain Cillian O’Connor struck a superb leveller in the 77th minute, capping off a hugely courageous comeback.

Three points without reply inside two minutes late in normal time appeared to have won it for the Dubs, especially as the last of those involved Connolly at last escaping Lee Keegan’s shackles to punish a poor Mayo kick-out.

Yet Cillian O’Connor immediately reduced the deficit from a free and the announcement of a minimum of seven minutes of added time was greeted with a massive noise from the Mayo support.

Their heroes made sure all that sound and fury did signify something, even if they may be disappointed, all things considered, that this Mayo performance did not actually produce the long-awaited All-Ireland triumph.

The pre-match predictions declared that Dublin needed to have a bad day for Mayo to have a chance and the champions duly complied – and still it wasn’t enough.

No Dublin player got on the scoresheet until half-an-hour had been played, and even then that only came from a free by Dean Rock.

So to have to pull this final out of the fire, Mayo could have been forgiven for believing in ‘the curse’ that legend has it has prevented them from winning ‘Sam’ since 1951. They decided, to – er – ‘forget that’ though and showed superb spirit to fight ferociously to the very end.

That attitude was apparent all day from Mayo, admittedly. Right from the first throw-in they were putting their bodies on the line, snapping into their opponents like rabid dogs, although both sides gave up a huge amount of turnovers, with clean handling not helped by the slippery conditions.

The bounce of the ball was not high off the pitch, nor was it going Mayo’s way, as shown by Dublin’s opening score in the ninth minute.

Brian Fenton exchanged hand-passes with midfield colleague Michael Darragh Macauley and raced in on goal, only for Clarke to parry his low shot. Bernard Brogan swung at the loose ball but his shot was deflected and going well wide until the unfortunate sweeper McLoughlin, racing back, turned it into his own net.

Four minutes later Fenton got in on the left again but this time the ball was cleared after Clarke’s parry.

However, Mayo felt the pain of another self-inflicted wound after 21 minutes. Connolly kicked a free beautifully over the Mayo rearguard and although Rock spilled the ball, the covering Colm Boyle could only knock it into his own goal.

Even apparent misfortune turned out well for Dublin: James McCarthy was black-carded for what was deemed a deliberate body collide on Mayo’s captain, but his replacement Paddy Andrews came on and showed his colleagues how to score from play – twice in little more than a minute.

Somehow Dublin went in at the break leading by double scores, 2-4 to 0-5, despite being largely dreadful.

The strong suspicion was that half-time would help the Dubs even more, that Jim Gavin would set matters right, but that proved to be completely wrong.

Instead, Mayo reeled off five points in-a-row to wipe out Dublin’s lucky lead and level the score for the first time.

The first four of those came inside the first five minutes, a stunning start to the second half, and Dublin seemed to be rattled as full-back Jonny Cooper forayed forward only to kick an awful wide.

Yet the challengers crucially could not get their noses in front, Dublin defender John Small making a big contribution, seizing on a moment’s hesitation to set up Fenton. More Dublin pressure in the Mayo half led to Rock’s only point from play.

The very next minute, Mayo might have gone ahead, but Andy Moran blazed just over the bar when some composure could have beaten Cluxton.

Already by that stage, midway through the second half, the tension had become almost unbearable, and it was more than 10 minutes before the next score came.

Alan Dillon got it, after defensive dithering by Dublin, and the sides were level for only the second time.

Mayo, though, did not drive on, not helped by some aimless high kicking from Aidan O’Shea, whereas Dublin were more composed with their passing.

Dublin’s response to losing the lead again appeared to be that of champions, the ever energetic Small sparking that quick-fire burst of three scores, added to by a Rock free and capped off by Connolly.

Yet if ever a team did not deserve to lose an All-Ireland final that team was Mayo and they duly kept their hopes alive.

Dublin’s staying power has been so important for them late on during tight tussles but Mayo’s heart gave them the boost needed to catch up with them in the closing stages.

Donal Vaughan’s second point, going into added time, was superb, but it’s his skipper’s score that won’t be forgotten – at least until the rematch on Saturday, October 1.

MATCH STATS


Dublin: S Cluxton (capt.); P McMahon, J Cooper, D Byrne; J McCarthy, C O’Sullivan, J Small (0-1); B Fenton (0-1), MD Macauley; P Flynn, K McManamon, C Kilkenny; D Rock (0-4, 0-3 frees), D Connolly (0-1, B Brogan Substitutes: P Andrews (0-2) for McCarthy (black card, 25), P Mannion for McManamon (46), M Fitzsimons for Macauley (52), E O’Gara for Brogan (62), D Daly for Byrne (66), D Bastick for Flynn (74) Own goals: McLoughlin and Boyle Yellow cards: McManamon (4); Macauley (46); Connolly (62) Black card: McCarthy (24)


Mayo: D Clarke; B Harrison, D Vaughan (0-2), K Higgins; L Keegan, C Boyle, P Durcan (0-1); S O’Shea, T Parsons (0-1); K McLoughlin, A O’Shea, D O’Connor; J Doherty (0-1), A Moran (0-2), C O’Connor (capt.) (0-7, 0-5 frees) Substitutes: A Dillon (0-1) for S O’Shea (55), C Barrett for Boyle (59), B Moran for Dillon (66), S Coen for D O’Connor (67), E Regan for Moran (71), C Loftus for Regan (79) Yellow cards: Aidan O’Shea (41); Boyle (58); Keegan (62)


Referee: Conor Lane (Cork) Attendance: 82,257

What we learned about Dublin

THEY are beatable – and yet they still didn’t lose. That was largely down to two freak own goals, of course, so Dublin’s aura may well have lost some of its lustre. Once again in an All-Ireland final they did not hit a high points tally, albeit this was their lowest since 1985. Jim Gavin has the confidence to switch players and systems around when things aren’t going well, such as sending on a forward (Paddy Andrews) when defender James McCarthy was black-carded, and replacing under-pressure midfielder Michael Darragh Macauley with a back (Michael Fitzsimons) in another re-shuffle. It was strange though that he didn’t withdraw the off-colour Paul Flynn and Bernard Brogan earlier in the game; perhaps he has too much faith in the star performers of the past.

What we learned about Mayo

THEY’RE not chokers – but then they have shown fighting spirit before, including against Dublin in last year’s drawn semi-final, when they forced a replay from seven points down. For all their determined defensive effort, Mayo are still working on the structure of their rearguard – when Paddy Andrews came on they took some time to work out who was actually picking him up, with that task seeming to fall to their sweeper for a while. Stephen Rochford doesn’t seem to place too much trust in his bench. His first substitution came 20 minutes into the second half, the next was effectively enforced by Colm Boyle picking up a yellow card, and the third didn’t come until the 66th minute.

Whistle Watch


Conor Lane (Cork)

UNTIL the black card is binned for good, referees will be in the firing line. Conor Lane issued his one and only black card of the day to Dublin’s James McCarthy after just 23 minutes in what seemed like an innocuous collision. This decision was made after consultation with his linesman. After McCarthy’s dismissal was met with howls of disapproval from the Dublin supporters, Lane took a more lenient approach to the rules. Michael Darragh Macauley should have been black-carded later in the half for his cynical trip on the advancing Lee Keegan while Aidan O’Shea was very fortunate to get away with a bad foul on Philly McMahon. Inexplicably, no punishment followed for O’Shea. In the second half, the crowd didn’t know what colour of card was coming out of Lane’s pocket from one incident to the next.

Turning Point

YOU could say half-time was when the tide turned in Mayo’s favour. The Connacht men were reeling after scoring two first half own goals. But they regrouped at half-time, settling themselves in front of the posts for the restart as they hit five unanswered points between the 36th and 46th minutes to level the game.

Top Score

ALTHOUGH it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing of the day, the award for best score goes to Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor as he fired over the equalising point in the 77th minute. It was pure theatre when the game’s best player found a bit of space and with that unmistakable, head-down kicking style, everyone knew the ball was splitting Dublin’s posts and the old ground would be filled to the rafters again come Saturday week.

Key Battle


Diarmuid Connolly (Dublin) v Lee Keegan (Mayo)

THE latest episode of ‘Love/Hate’ starring these two wasn’t as dramatic as previous showings but it still attracted attention – and they were shown cards, of course, if only yellows for some shenanigans after the hour mark. Connolly started out on the right wing and although he moved infield he had to drop increasingly deeper in an attempt to get into the game. Often that plays into Keegan’s hands, allowing him to do damage further up the pitch, but he was less influential in that regard on this occasion. Connolly cannot be curtailed completely, of course, and not from dead balls, and his cute free-kick over the Mayo defence almost deserved that extremely lucky second goal.