Mayo football's good run continued at Markievicz Park yesterday. Within a week of Crossmolina's club All-Ireland and the under-21s win over Meath, the county reached its first league final in 23 years. Despite looking second-best for quite a while, Mayo came good in the final quarter and were deserving winners.
It was also a good day for manager Pat Holmes who made decisive switches which involved breaking up his well-regarded young attacking formation. To be fair to the players involved with the under21s, two days wasn't much time to recover from an All-Ireland semi-final but the substitutions worked so well that they accounted for half the team's scores.
Resources available constituted one of the big differences between the teams. Whereas Mayo brought in players who won the match, their opponents had to cope with losses to injury.
"It was a tough game," said Mayo captain Noel Connelly afterwards. "Roscommon put it up to us and let the ball go effectively into the big fellas in the full forward line. But there was a strong breeze and at half-time we were only two down and going badly. We knew we were better than that."
They'd want to be. Trailing by five points after 13 minutes, Mayo looked in terrible trouble. Stephen Lohan was causing mayhem on Kevin Cahill. Dominant in the air and elusive on the ground, the Roscommon full forward chalked up 1-2 - the goal following a dummy and well-placed shot.
He had great back-up with Conor Connelly exploiting daft amounts of space on the wing and John Hanly making the play on the 40. Roscommon's first intimation of adversity came when Hanly had to be replaced because of a calf muscle injury. Manager John Tobin was later to describe as crucial that loss and the further departure of wing back Clifford McDonald within the first half hour.
But like Sligo the previous evening, Roscommon found that their interval advantage did little justice to the liveliness of their forward play and eagerness to attack from all over the field. Mayo kicked four points in the second quarter to narrow the score to 0-6 to 1-5.
David Brady began to make his presence felt at centrefield. His partner Colm McManamon started well but faded and Mayo will have to get by without him next week as he was red-carded for a reckless foul in the last minute of the match.
In the middle, Fergal O'Donnell again provided an inspirational presence for Roscommon and threw in a galvanic point in the 45th minute. But it was Brady who finished strongest in the sector - topping his display with two perfect deliveries into the corner for David Nestor - with help from Michael Moyles and James Nallen who were both introduced as substitutes.
This reintroduction of the triumphant Crossmolina contingent was crucial to Mayo's success. Moyles in particular made himself available as a visible target-man, gave his team more aerial power and kicked three points. Nallen further strengthened Mayo's ball-winning capacity and mobility. With 10 minutes left, Maurice Sheridan entered the fray and he also ended with three points, two from play.
As Mayo stepped up their game, Roscommon effectively disintegrated. Their sweeping attacks were replaced by hesitancy around the field, nowhere more fatally so than in defence where bumbling and poor distribution aggravated their problems.
Nonetheless there were only eight minutes left when Mayo drew level, 0-12 to 1-9. The crowd of around 7,000 had to be told because the scoreboard operator went strangely dead at this critical juncture.
Roscommon's manager John Tobin expressed his frustration afterwards.
"I was disappointed at the way we lost control and gave away easy ball. In the last five or 10 minutes, we put the head down and created two goal chances but they'd a lot of men behind the ball at that stage. Overall I thought we contested well."
McManamon's dismissal wasn't entirely out of keeping in a match which occasionally descended into outbreaks of rancour and unpleasantness with referee Michael Collins struggling a bit to stay on top of things.
Mayo will now contest the first all-Connacht final in 20 years next week - probably in Croke Park - looking for a first NFL title in 31 years. The county doesn't have great memories of such days out in the capital but in recent times, between the women's team and Crossmolina, things have been looking up.
MAYO: P Burke; R Connelly, K Cahill, A Higgins; F Costello, A Roche, N Connelly; C McManamon (0-2), D Brady (0-1); J Gill (0-3, two frees), D McDonagh, S Carolan; M McNicholas (0-1), R Loftus (0-1), T Mortimer. Subs: D Nestor (0-2) for Carolan (23 mins); M Moyles (0-3, one free) for McDonagh (31 mins); J Nallen for Loftus (46 mins); M Sheridan (0-3, one free) for Mortimer (60 mins).
ROSCOMMON: S Curran; D Gavin, J Whyte, I Daly; B Bourke, F Grehan, C McDonald (0-1); F O'Donnell (0-1), P Mahon; C Connelly, J Hanly, D Connellan; N Dineen (0-1), S Lohan (1-2), G Lohan (0-4, all frees). Subs: G Cox for Hanly (16 mins); M Ryan for McDonald (31 mins); F Dolan (0-1, a free) for Connellan (66 mins); S O'Neill for Mahon (67 mins); E Lohan for Connelly (70 mins).
Referee: M Collins (Cork)
