All-Ireland SFC Semi-final/Mayo 0-9 Fermanagh 0-9: Fermanagh and Mayo were taken to new places after yesterday's drawn All-Ireland semi-final. Mayo had to survive the season's first close finish and cope with the adversity of being a man short for nearly all the second half. Fermanagh, for once, found there was no happy ending when they squandered some good chances to win and had to settle for a replay next Saturday afternoon also at Croke Park.
The Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football championship's two most entertaining teams were dealt a poor hand by the weather, as were the 64,518 supporters. Persistent rain and a gusting wind interfered with the teams' preferred games and in the end it was a dogged, low-scoring affair.
Fermanagh looked the more disappointed afterwards, and had every reason to be. Their impossibly romantic championship should have been extended to the very end but some poor finishing cost them the match and unlike in the quarter-final against Armagh there was no late deliverance to diminish the importance of the inaccuracies.
Mayo selector Liam McHale admitted his team's opponents had deserved to win but any heartfelt relief at being spared must have evaporated when news of serious injuries to Ronan McGarrity (taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs) and Conor Mortimer (considered doubtful for the replay after sustaining ankle damage) broke in the dressing-room.
So next week will be an anxious one for the Connacht champions but it could have been much worse.
With the hostile elements swirling and Fermanagh as implacable as they've been all summer, Mayo lost James Gill within eight minutes of the restart. Two yellow cards in the space of four minutes brought about his dismissal and he couldn't complain about either - both for high challenges on Barry Owens and Stephen Maguire respectively.
From then on it was a backs-to-the-wall operation and they just about survived.
Fermanagh used the extra man reasonably well - different players, Hugh Brady, Raymond Johnston and even Owens were spare at different times - to win more possession and create late chances for Colm Bradley, Johnston and Stephen Maguire but the shots were jittery and wide.
But the match got loose and the man disadvantage didn't hurt Mayo as much as it had Armagh two weeks previously.
In fact John Maughan's team occasionally had a free man themselves as well as a defence that worked tirelessly to hold the line.
There could have been a goal earlier in the second half when Ciarán O'Reilly had a clear sight of goal but fired straight at Peter Burke.
The second-half adversity turned around the match.
For most of the first 35 minutes Mayo were in control.
Even if Fermanagh had pulled a three-point deficit back to the minimum by the break, they had also been playing the wind and faced an uphill battle.
But all season they've proved impossible to shake in tight matches and any prospects Mayo had of putting them away disappeared with the departure of Gill.
There was a glimmer of a chance in the closing minutes when Conor Mortimer put his team ahead by a point but Stephen Maguire levelled matters in the 67th minute and that concluded the scoring.
As has been the case with the teams all season they set out their plans with a minimum of fuss. The only serious variation was Fermanagh's deployment of Niall Bogue to do a specific marking job on Kieran McDonald with Shane McDermott moving onto to the roaming Brian Maloney.
Bogue did a good job, minimising the space for McDonald to look up and direct the ball around his attack. The Mayo centre forward had a difficult afternoon anyway coping with the wet ball, elected to hand-pass rather than kick on several occasions and his distributive accuracy wasn't at its best.
He did battle away and contributed well to his team's escape, lofting a great point from over 40 metres to equalise after Fermanagh had gone ahead for the first time in the second half and setting up Mortimer for the lead point in the 65th minute after a switch into the full forwards.
Otherwise Fermanagh's defence held up very well.
Aside from Bogue's tenacious attention to detail, Barry Owens probably stitched up the full back All Star with another energetic display, complete with assured reading of the attacks and good judgment in when to attack the ball and carry it out.
From the start the Ulster side took the game to their opponents. Within 20 seconds Martin McGrath had a shot for a point bounce back out off the crossbar but by the eighth minute Fermanagh were three up with points from James Sherry, Little and Bradley - the latter two rattling their markers Peadar Gardiner and Conor Moran.
But Mayo steadied the ship and after a free from Conor Mortimer had got them off the mark, they could have had a goal when Pat Kelly came steaming up from wing back but decided to go for goal and hit the shot with little conviction, allowing Niall Tinney scramble it away for a 45.
The Fermanagh goalkeeper was subsequently penalised for overholding in front of his own goal, allowing Alan Dillon close the margin to two and shortly afterwards his opposing number, Burke, kicked away a possession he had impressively won from a dropping ball.
The second quarter featured some of Mayo's best football, clever movement into the wind, keeping the ball and working it into scoring positions to sufficient effect that they led by double scores, 0-6 to 0-3 on the half hour - the last score kicked by full back David Heaney who had been brought out the field by Stephen Maguire's switch out of the full-forward line with Gardiner moving back to the square.
But Fermanagh responded and Bradley and Eamon Maguire trimmed the margin before the break.
As Mayo struggled to cope with the loss of Gill their opponents took a firmer grip on centrefield where McGrath and Barron came into the match and McGarrity's impressive efforts began to flag - maybe under the influence of his injury. David Brady was substituted by Gary Mullins who picked up a reasonable amount of ball but didn't always use it effectively.
Tom Brewster made his expected appearance and kicked a couple of wides without steering over the crucial scores that made him an ultimately central figure in the defeat of Armagh.
Mayo's 62nd-minute equaliser to make it 0-8 each was the result of a dubious free after Conor Mortimer looked to be barging rather than the injured party.
Mayo could argue that Mortimer's brother Trevor might have had a penalty earlier but there was no doubting their good fortune in respect of the free.
MAYO: 1. P Burke; 2. C Moran, 3. D Heaney (0-1), 4. G Ruane; 5. P Gardiner, 6. J Nallen, 7. P Kelly; 8. R McGarrity, 9. D Brady; 10. J Gill, 11. K McDonald (0-1), 12. A Dillon (0-2, both frees); 13. C Mortimer (0-4, two frees), 14. T Mortimer (0-1), 15. B Maloney. Subs: 27. A Moran for Maloney (53 mins), 23. G Mullins for Brady (53 mins), 24. M McNicholas (0-1) for Dillon (60 mins).
FERMANAGH: 1. N Tinney; 2. N Bogue, 3. B Owens, 4. R McCluskey; 5. R Johnston, 6. S McDermott, 7. P Sherry; 8. M McGrath, 9. L McBarron (0-1); 10. E Maguire (0-1), 14. J Sherry (0-1), 12. M Little (0-1); 13. C O'Reilly, 11. S Maguire, 15. C Bradley (0-3). Subs: 28. T Brewster (0-1, a free) for Little (42 mins), 29. H Brady for P Sherry (43 mins)), 26. M Murphy for J Sherry (70 mins).
Referee: M Collins (Cork).
