NFL Division One: Derry 1-17 Mayo 2-19
With one game still to go, Derry have dropped to Division Two football next season after succumbing to a five-point defeat to Mayo at Celtic Park. The win for Kevin McStay’s side all but confirmed there continued presence at the top table.
Ryan O’Donoghue and Conor Glass shared top billing with eight points apiece, while Matthew Ruane also weighed in with six points from play. Frank Irwin and Jordan Flynn scored the Mayo goals with Patrick McGurk accounting for Derry’s only major.
A clinically dispatched Jordan Flynn goal, drilled home deep into first-half injury time handed Mayo a three-point half-time lead after both sides battled for supremacy throughout a well contested opening 35 minutes. But Mayo dramatically hit six of the last eight scores to wrestle advantage at the interval to lead 1-11 to 1-8.
O’Donoghue lasered over the first of his five first-half points in Mayo’s opening excursion into the Derry half with a few seconds barely elapsed. O’Donoghue had Diarmuid Baker for company, with Eoin McEvoy enjoying a fine physical battle with Aidan O’Shea. Donnacha McHugh was tasked with policing Derry’s marquee forward Shane McGuigan.
Young prospect Dan Higgins plucked a couple of early high balls and Niall Toner palmed an effort into the side netting before Patrick McGurk, in his first senior start, opened Derry’s scorecard and in some style, too, as he blasted home for a goal after three minutes.
McGuigan accounted for Derry’s first point courtesy of a lung-bursting Paul Cassidy assist.
Ruane had his eye in early on, firing over the first of his four first-half points in the eighth minute, before McGuigan dropped the shoulder and pointed a second for the home side.
Two more from midfielder Ruane sandwiched a second from O’Donoghue pulling the visitors level at 0-5 to 1-2. The Connacht side spurned back-to-back goal chances, however, midway through the half when David McBrien scooped wide before Pádraig McGrogan dived heroically to deny Frank Irwin.
Four points in a row recaptured the lead for the hosts with McGurk, Niall Loughlin and McGrogan, from distance, among the scorers to leave Derry 1-6 to 0-5 up.
Again Mayo fired back to level matters in the 26th minute. Derry edged ahead through a neat Glass run and point and another from McGuigan. But an unanswered 1-2 just before the break, including that Flynn goal, left Mayo 1-11 to 1-8 ahead at half-time.
The home side were guilty of any number of wides and shots that dropped short after the restart. Mayo, by contrast, were much more economical up front. Six consecutive scores all but sealed their win, with Irwin’s 42nd-minute goal leathered into the bottom left-hand corner of the Derry net igniting the scoring splurge. Ruane and O’Donoghue were both in the thick of the Mayo scoring, now boasting a nine-point lead at 2-17 to 1-11.
But just when Derry appeared dead and buried, Glass handed his side an unlikely late sliver of hope. The big midfielder hit back to back two pointers in the 60th minute before Conor Doherty also swung over a huge effort. It reduced the Oak Leaf arrears to five points just before McGuigan drilled an effort that was deflected into the side netting.
But after that Derry’s short-lived comeback petered out disappointingly.
O’Donoghue nailed his eighth point of the game before Glass hammered over a third two pointer for Derry in the 69th minute. But, four down, it was too little, too late for Paddy Tally’s side, with Eoghan McLaughlin drilling over the final point of the game for Mayo.
DERRY: O Lynch; D Baker, E McEvoy, M Bradley; C Doherty (0-0-1), P McGrogan (0-0-1), P McGurk (1-0-1); C Glass (0-3-2), A Tohill; E Doherty, N Toner (0-0-1), D Higgins; N Loughlin (0-0-1), S McGuigan (0-0-4, 1f), P Cassidy.
Subs: N McNicholl for O Lynch (13 mins); C Devlin for P McGurk for N Loughlin, B McCarron for D Higgins (both 51 mins); C McMonagle for A Tohill (56); M Doherty for P McGrogan (59).
MAYO: C Reape; J Coyne, D McHugh, E Hession; S Callinan, D McBrien, F Kelly (0-0-1); S Coen, M Ruane (0-0-6); C Reid (0-0-1), J Carney, J Flynn (1-0-0); A O’Shea (0-0-1), F Irwin (1-0-1), R O’Donoghue (0-1-6, 2f).
Subs: S Morahan for D McHugh (51 mins); F Boland for C Reid (54); D Neary for F Kelly (56); E McLaughlin (0-0-1) for D McBrien (60); P Toye for A O’Shea (68).
Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford).
