Mayo march on to All-Ireland quarter-finals as Galway left to mull over regrets

All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final: Mayo 1-10 Galway 0-12

Among the last of the stragglers ambling out of Pearse Stadium on Sunday evening were John O’Mahony and Andy Moran, veterans of such days. Mayo had come to Salthill and conquered Galway again. They were in no hurry to leave. In terms of the championship, when are they ever?

Mayo’s helter-skelter existence continues onwards now towards a Croke Park All-Ireland quarter-final while Galway are left to ponder how their season has unraveled in the space of just seven days.

Prior to last weekend’s defeat to Armagh, Galway were the only team in the championship with a 100 per cent win record. They led this All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time but managed to add just four points after the break.

It was a game dictated by the wind that often tends to blow through the Salthill venue. Galway won the toss and played with it at their backs in the first half and while they held a five-point interval advantage, they really needed to establish a more substantial windbreaker ahead of the turnaround.

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Mayo, who went half an hour without scoring, hit 1-5 without reply at the start of the second half as the momentum of the game swung decisively in their direction. The last time Galway eliminated Mayo from the championship was 1998 and from the moment David McBrien tucked away his 43rd minute goal it never felt like that stat was about to be updated.

With the visitors leading by two points in injury-time, Galway resorted to last chance saloon territory and bombarded the Mayo goal with hit and hope balls. A couple of deliveries by John Daly caused some panic and Eoghan McLaughlin came to the rescue with a goal-line save from a Cillian McDaid fisted effort in the dying seconds.

John Maher had the last chance of the game, but as he got a shot away from within a forest of bodies his effort whizzed high and over the crossbar. Mayo, Gaelic football’s great survivors, were still standing.

If the wind was a central ever-present characteristic of the game, it was matched by the omnipresent performance of Diarmuid O’Connor. The Ballintubber clubman was involved in so much of Mayo’s good work and during the first half when they were under pressure he was the one player who kept them in the fight.

[ As it Happened: Galway 0-12 Mayo 1-10 ]

Paddy Durcan was also a key player for Mayo, while Aidan O’Shea emptied himself for the cause once again. Cillian O’Connor came off the bench and with his first touch curled over a beautiful point. McStay’s Mayo project has plenty of freshness, but it remains a house largely constructed on the foundations of the recent past.

Mayo entered the game on the back of a hugely disappointing loss to Cork last weekend, a result that had threatened to completely wreck their season – just Mayo still finding new ways to screw up their All-Ireland chances.

At the final whistle, McStay spun around to the stand, fists clenched, and let out a guttural roar. Relief, joy, the whole lot.

“We wanted a big reaction from last week,” he said afterwards.

“We were disappointment, not hurt. You have to move on quickly, you can’t be hanging around feeling sorry for yourself. We are not that sort of group anyhow.”

Mayo made four changes to the team named in the match programme – Eoghan McLaughlin, Kevin McLoughlin, Tommy Conroy and Jason Doherty all starting.

The inclusion of McLoughlin was something of a curveball as it was his first championship start since last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Kerry. And it certainly appeared to catch Galway out in the early exchanges as McLoughlin was one of Mayo’s best players, linking play and he popped over an eighth minute point.

However, Mayo would not score again until the 38th minute. Playing against the wind in that first half, they really struggled to cause the Galway defence problems. For their part, Galway’s high press on Mayo’s kickout was highly effective and nine of Colm Reape’s first-half restarts were lost.

“The breeze was a big issue,” added McStay. “The boys were telling us inside at half-time that was a very big breeze, it was very hard to shoot. You saw some of the shots, you thought they were 20 yards over the bar and they fell on the penalty spot so that was certainly part of the game.

“We always felt it we stayed composed and worked our openings we would get them. Then we had big players to bring on, you saw that yourselves, very composed and they got us over the line.”

If Mayo had the luxury of bringing on the likes of Cillian O’Connor and Enda Hession, Galway’s fortunes trended in the opposite direction. Damien Comer, who had entered the game as an injury doubt, failed to return after half-time.

“It’s a tightness on his hamstring, he’s prone to them, but he just felt he couldn’t get moving, if he stayed on he would have ripped it,” said Joyce.

Without him spearheading the attack, Galway lacked a real threat up top. Shane Walsh failed to score from play and registered five wides over the course of the game.

Seán Kelly, who was also an injury concern before the match, managed to play but the Galway captain didn’t look comfortable and Joyce confirmed he was not fully fit.

Reape pulled off a fine save from Matthew Tierney during the second half but the game’s pivotal score was McBrien’s 43rd minute strike that brought Mayo back level, 1-5 to 0-8.

Durcan played a central role in the creation of the goal before it was rounded off with a neat one-two between McBrien and Aidan O’Shea. Moments later Cillian O’Connor wrapped his left foot around the ball to put Mayo in front again. They would not be caught. The momentum had shifted.

“It was very disappointing,” said Joyce. “We have no one to blame but ourselves, we just left too many chances behind us, but hats off to Mayo they got a couple of scores there at the end to finish things off.”

Mayo march onwards, Gaelic football’s great survivors.

MAYO: Colm Reape; Sam Callinan, David McBrien (1-0), Eoghan McLaughlin; Jack Coyne, Jason Doherty, Paddy Durcan (0-2); Aidan O’Shea, Stephen Coen (0-1); Diarmuid O’Connor, Kevin McLoughlin (0-1), Jordan Flynn; Ryan O’Donoghue (0-2, one free), Jack Carney, Tommy Conroy (0-2).

Subs: Enda Hession for Doherty (ht); Cillian O’Connor (0-1) for K McLoughlin (45 mins); Matthew Ruane for Carney (59 mins); James Carr (0-1) for O’Shea (63 mins); Donnacha McHugh for Coyne (73 mins)

GALWAY: Conor Gleeson; Jack Glynn, John McGrath, Seán Fitzgerald; Seán Kelly, Cian Hernon, John Daly; Paul Conroy (0-1), John Maher (0-2); Matthew Tierney (0-2, one mark), Peter Cooke (0-1), Cillian McDaid (0-1); Johnny Heaney, Damien Comer (0-1), Shane Walsh (0-4, four frees).

Subs: Ian Burke for Comer (ht); Cathal Sweeney for Heaney (48 mins); Robert Finnerty for Hernon (62 mins); Tomo Culhane for Cooke (70 mins)

Referee: Seán Hurson (Tyrone)