Mayo Cruise To Victory In New York

Connacht SFC First Round
New York 0-10 Mayo 2-19

Mayo kicked off the 2009 Senior Football Championship with victory over New York in Connacht's first round at Gaelic Park on Sunday.

John O'Mahony's men overcame a flying start from the 200-1 underdogs to eventually coast to success and set up a provincial semi-final against either Leitrim or Roscommon in Castlebar at the end of the month.

The home side actually made a magnificent start as they scored four unanswered points in the first five minutes, the first two coming from the left boot of Cavan man Paddy Smith.

Frees from John McNicholas and captain Robert Moran then made it 0-4 to 0-0 before Andy Moran hit the first of Mayo's scores on the ground where he made his Championship debut five years ago.

Playing into the Broadway end, O'Mahony's men then had a good goal chance thanks to the work of Aidan O'Shea, one of four Championship debutants in the Mayo side, but after he lost possession Barry Moran opted to kick over putting the gap at two points.

Robert Moran hit over another free for Seamus Smith's men before O'Shea replied in kind with his first score in senior Championship football. Mayo goalkeeper David Clarke then had to run from his line to deny Declan Reilly a great goalscoring opportunity, the US-based side continuing to worry the 2004 and 2006 Sam Maguire runners-up.

However, those worries were short-lived. Mayo raised their levels of intensity and Alan Dillon and captain Trevor Mortimer then combined to set midfielder Tom Parsons up for a fine point and when O'Shea split the posts for the second time with an equally well-taken effort the sides were level for the first time since the throw-in.

Dillon had set up that point for O'Shea and he scored his first of the day to put Mayo in front for the first time before Pat Harte - in the 22nd minute -  ensured that the first green flag of the Championship would be raised. The Ballina man won a breaking ball and with electric pace bounded forward and unleashed an excellent finish that gave New York goalkeeper Evan Byrne absolutely no chance.

A fine-60-yard kick from Dillon then saw the ball rest on the roof of the net as Mayo took a double scores lead, an advantage extended by scores from Andy Moran and Ronan McGarrity. The scoring spree from the men in green and red continued when a Peadar Gardiner kick from his own half bounced off the astroturf and went all the way over and shortly after that O'Shea put away their second goal.

Man-of-the-match Harte was the architect this time as his superb pace again shone through. He burst forward and fed O'Shea who easily palmed his first Championship goal to the back of Byrne's net, making it 2-10 to 0-5, the hosts not having scored for nearly 20 minutes at this point.

Shortly after he nearly had another when he collected a Gardiner pass, but this time Byrne made the save, however his side were still adrift at the interval trailing 2-10 to 0-5.

After the restart, the most impressive Harte set up captain Mortimer for his first point of the Championship before defender Joe Bell blocked a goal attempt from another Mayo debutant, the lightning fast wing back Donal Vaughan. Byrne then denied Barry Moran another goal chance after he was played in by Andy Moran but Dillon swept the rebound over the bar.

Smith finally ended a 35-minute New York point drought kicking over two either side of an Andy Moran score for the Westerners. That brought his tally to 0-4, which Moran equalled with Mayo's next effort.

New York sub Ronan Caffrey tagged on their eighth point before the game began to peter out, Mayo's lead of 2-15 to 0-8 seemingly enough with ten minutes to go. New York on the other hand hit a few woeful wides as they struggled to reduce the large gap in any great manner.

Sub Aidan Kilcoyne ended a lengthy spell without a score as he resisted the temptation to play in a team-mate and booted over. Francie Cleary then got a nice individual score for the hosts before Mortimer hit his second wide in the space of a few minutes. He was further frustrated when Byrne saved a powerful shot at goal from him, but from the resulting 45 Kilcoyne made no mistake.

Mortimer's search for a second point finally ended with four minutes to play, that score precluding New York's foray into double figures thanks to US-born sub Thomas McGovern. Byrne ended the game by making his third fine save, this time from Kilcoyne but O'Shea was on hand to get his third point and end what was in the end a stroll for O'Mahony's men. Much tougher tasks will certainly lie ahead.