All-Ireland SFC: Much improved Mayo respond

All-Ireland SFC Group One

Mayo 2-17 Tyrone 1-13

By Francis Mooney at O'Neill's Healy Park

Mayo’s victory has blown Group One of the All-Ireland series wide open, a defiant bounce from the misery of Castlebar to turn a visit to Omagh into joyous triumph.

This was a performance which celebrated the notorious unpredictability of the men from the west and gave their supporters reason to believe again.

A seven points win at O’Neill's Healy Park rocked Tyrone to its core at a time when the Ulster men were on a high, coming off a rare win at Ballybofey.

Hurting from defeat at home to Cavan, the Connacht men travelled north without recuperating manager Kevin McStay, but they came out fighting with a fearless assault on Tyrone’s ambitions to take another step towards topping the group.

It was clear from the outset that Tyrone were struggling to back up their battling win over Donegal at Ballybofey last weekend, while Mayo came strongly on the rebound following their home defeat to Cavan.

It was the visitors, playing into the wind, who displayed all the drive and energy as they ran confidently at the home side, taking on defenders and winning most of the one-on-one battles.

They moved into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead by the 15^th minute, pressing aggressively on Niall Morgan’s kick-out to dominate possession in the middle through Mattie Ruane, Paddy Durcan, and David McBrien.

And with Bob Tuohy and Conal Dawson adding dash to complement the physical presence of Aidan O’Shea, they were the dominant force throughout the first half.

After Michael McKernan had got Tyrone off the mark, Dawson and Rory Brickenden were on target early on, before Ryan O’Donoghue knocked over a couple of points.

The Red Hands were struggling to get any fluency into their play, with Enda Hession on top in his duel with Darren McCurry and Jack Coyle doing well on Darragh Canavan.

Malachy O’Rourke’s side struggled for momentum, going 15 minutes without a score before Ben McDonnell pulled one back, but the Connacht men responded with five on the spin to open out a seven points gap.

Durcan, O’Donoghue, Tuohy, and Brickenden with his second, kept the score-board ticking to the delight of the smaller than usual band of travelling supporters.

Tyrone did show signs of recovery late in the half as Darragh Canavan picked off a couple of points, but disaster struck for them after the hooter had sounded.

Tuohy sent in a dropping ball which goalkeeper Niall Morgan fumbled, and Darren McHale nipped in to gather and slot the ball to the net for a massive boost and a 1-9 to 0-4 interval lead.

And O’Donoghue came agonisingly close to adding a second goal soon after the restart when he raced through to collect O’Shea’s assist and send his shot crashing against an upright.

Tyrone’s powers of recovery were evident, if not sustained, as they rallied for Mattie Donnelly to float over a point, before Darragh Canavan danced through for a brilliant goal, and when Darren McCurry broke his duck with two points in the space of a minute, followed by a two-point free from Morgan, just a point separated the sides with 55 minutes played.

But Mayo’s need was greater, and it showed. Rochford ran the bench, and Davitt Neary, in particular, answered the call in noble fashion, running hard at a nervous Tyrone defence to win frees that O’Donoghue clipped between the posts.

And it was Neary who won the penalty that O’Donoghue netted on 63 minutes to restore the seven points cushion.

Tyrone were unable to muster another big response, although Morgan did raise another orange flag, but the green and red had more in the tank, Aidan O’Shea capping an influential display with a point, and corner back Jack Coyle also on target.

Scorers for Mayo: R O’Donoghue 1-6 (1-0 pen, 5fs), D McHale 1-0, P Durcan 0-3, R Brickenden 0-2, C Dawson, A O’Shea, B Tuohy, J Carney, J Coyne, C Reape (’45) 0-1 each.

Scorers for Tyrone: D Canavan 1-3 (2fs), N Morgan 0-4 (2tpf), D McCurry 0-2 (1f), M Donnelly, B McDonnell, K McGeary, M McKernan 0-1 each.

Mayo: C Reape; J Coyne, R Brickenden, S Morahan; S Coen, D McBrien, E Hession; P Durcan, M Ruane; J Carney, D McHale, B Tuohy; A O’Shea, C Dawson, R O’Donoghue.

Subs: J Flynn for Tuohy (51) D Neary for McHale (51), F Kelly for Dawson (54), F Boland for Ruane (63), S Callanan for Durcan (67).

Tyrone: N Morgan; C Quinn, P Teague, N Devlin; M McKernan, R Brennan, K McGeary; B McDonnell, C Kilpatrick; S O’Donnell, M Donnelly, C Daly; D McCurry, M Bradley, D Canavan.

Subs: S O’Hare for O’Donnell (HT), L Gray for Brennan (HT), P Harte for Bradley (46), R Canavan for Daly (46), A Donaghy for McDonnell (61).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).