Mayo Gaels came out the wrong side of the first round of this Egans Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship Group 2 encounter on Saturday May25th in Killala. The final score was Killala 0:12 Mayo Gaels 0:11.
While the weather has been poor lately and conditions were wet on the day, in general the pitch was in good condition and the Gaels played into a slight wind in the first half. Indeed, we came ‘out of the blocks’ very impressively and were two points clear after 6 minutes as Adam Gallagher and Niall Brett scored from play. On the eight minute Killala’s Andrew Farrell opened his teams account with the first of his seven scores from placed balls. Danny Burke scored our next before Farrell got his second and all looked very bright for us when corner-back Anthony Byrne popped one over on the 15th minute.
We did struggle for possession in the middle third of the pitch and this was highlighted when Killala’s Seamus Ryan stormed through to make sure we wouldn’t get too far ahead and keep one point in it at 0:03 to 0:04. Our overall play was good at this stage and we were exerting plenty of pressure on their defense This pressure produced two frees out around the 45′ on the 17th and 18th minutes and Gallagher made no mistake with them.
6 points to 3 ahead after 18 mins and we were cruising. However, that’s when the ‘wheels came off the wagon’. We wouldn’t score again until the 19th minute of the 2nd half. We struggled to get good ball into our forwards and we were out of favour with the referee who had a poor 2nd quarter, compounding our frustration. John ‘Joe’ Sloyan was brought in for Anthony Byrne but in the 10mins before half-time, Farrell put over three placed balls, one a fine effort from the 45′, and Brendan Garvin added one just before the whistle. The half-time score was Killala 0:07, Mayo Gaels 0:06.
We were hoping for a similar performance to the start of the 2nd half as we had seen in the 1st but it wasn’t to be. Farrell scored an early free kick and Ryan continued to cause trouble in the middle, scoring his 2nd on the 36th minute. Killala added two more from play before we were able to respond. James Fallon replaced Alan Morris and his presence in the middle started to swing things our way. Kevin Lynch had to retire with what looked like a hamstring injury and Paul Walsh was introduced to further beef up the middle.
Fallon’s breaking balls were picked up by Gallagher and Burke who pointed either side of another Farrell 45′ making the score 0:12 to 0:08 with five minutes in normal time left. We were piling on the pressure now and Mally Byrne was unlucky to see his close-in free come back off the crossbar. Neil McGurrin replaced Byrne before full-back Fintan Canavan brought us to within 3 points at the start of injury time. Burke and Gallagher added two more but time ran out for us. We could never recover from that barren period in the middle of the game where we failed to score for over 30 minutes.
With Swinford losing to Burrishoole in the other game of the group, both Swinford and ourselves will be desperate for a win when they visit Abbey Park on the weekend of June23rd.
Mayo Gaels team; Paul Mannion, Anthony Byrne (0:01), Fintan Canavan (0:01), Adrian Heneghan, Martin Connor, Kevin Lynch, Shane Vahey, Adam Gallagher (0:05), Johnny Morrin, Alan Morris, Niall Brett (0:01), Kevin Jordan, Mally Byrne, Shane Lyons, Danny Burke (0:03)
Subs; PJ Larkin, Neill McGurrin for Mally Byrne, Liam Duggan, Kevin Brett, James Fallon for Alan Morris, Brian Flynn, Paul Walsh for Kevin Lynch, John ‘Joe’ Sloyan for Anthony Byrne, Brian Heneghan.
