Electric Ireland All-Ireland MFC Quarter-Final

Mayo 3-13 (3-29) Offaly 4-7 (4-0-7)

By Kevin Egan at King & Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park

Mayo held off a powerful Offaly surge to secure their place in the last four of the Electric Ireland minor football championship, kicking the last three scores of the game just when it looked like the Leinster champions were set to advance.

Even allowing for the wind, Mayo played far more of their best football in the opening half, when they ransacked the Offaly defence to score 2-6 unanswered in the 20 minutes before half-time. In every aspect of play, they were running riot, and causing Offaly a world of problems.

The start of the game saw Ben Holmes set up Conor Hession for a goal, but Offaly replied well, employing an all-out attack approach. Every free was tapped and run at the Mayo defence, every attacker wanted to take on and beat his man, and that yielded a fine goal for Ruairí Woods and some well-taken points from Tony Furey, Dylan Dunne and Cathal Weldon.

However throughout the year, long spells of playing second fiddle in the kickout battle have haunted Offaly, and that again was to come to the fore here as Mayo starved the Offaly attack of ball and unleashed wave after wave of their own attacks.

Adam Kelly, an injury doubt leading up to the game, was dominant in the middle but the real star of the show was Dara Flanagan, operating at centre-forward. The Eastern Gaels man scored 1-3 in all, 1-2 in the first half, and created real danger every time he took possession. His tap and go free down the right set up another goal for Conor Coghill through the middle of the Offaly defence, and Mayo could easily have added to their 3-7 to 1-4 half-time lead, with Rhys Neary firing over the bar with the goal at his mercy and three wides in the closing minutes keeping the lead down to single digits.

The physical presence of Hession and Ben Holmes was also a threat, and when Mayo used the breeze to hit their two big men, they created chaos and chances, with Holmes adding two points of his own. That threat was removed for the second half, and Mayo’s running game also dried up.

As they did for the Leinster final, the Offaly supporters travelled in big numbers for this fixture and a crucial part of Mayo’s gameplan for the second half would have been to remove the crowd as a factor in the contest. A goal from Furey at the start of the second half threatened to throw that plan out the window but Mayo overcame that setback and monopolised possession for long stretches, holding the ball for two and three minutes at a time on several occasions.

More often than not however, no scoring chances materialised at the end of those possessions, albeit that didn’t matter as long as Offaly weren’t scoring at the other end.

Then the midlanders won a turnover, Caden O’Beirne played the ball down the line to Cian McNamee, and the Rhode man beat his marker along the end line and squeezed in a goal from an impossible angle. The crowd came alive, and after the two sides traded points, another goal, this time from Dylan Dunne, sent the Faithful into raptures.

They had the wind at their backs, the nine-point lead was fully wiped out, and after Eamon Maher made an incredible mark, he was dragged down, Tony Furey tapped over the free, and they had all the momentum and energy.

That all changed on the next kickout when Eoghan Dever fielded the ball, he too was tackled, and Conor Hession traversed the black spot on the crossbar with as important a kick as he’ll ever have taken in his young career so far.

Offaly still had to chase the game and they did exactly that, but three chances went astray, the closest being Aaron Daly hitting the post from 35 metres out, and as they grew increasingly desperate, gaps opened up at the other end for Ben Joyce and Oran Murphy to add the insurance points and see Mayo through to a semi-final clash with Kerry.

Scorers for Mayo: Conor Hession 1-5 (2tpf, 1f), Dara Flanagan 1-3, Conor Coghill 1-0, Ben Holmes 0-2 (1m, 1f), Rhys Neary 0-1, Ben Joyce 0-1, Oran Murphy 0-1.

Scorers for Offaly: Tony Furey 1-4 (2fs), Ruairí Woods 1-1, Dylan Dunne 1-1, Cian McNamee 1-0, Cathal Weldon 0-1.

Mayo: Thomas Williams; Conor Coghill, Barry Langan, Cahair Tighe; Ryan O’Donnell, Declan Duffy, Eoghan Dever; Adam Kelly, Patrick Garvey; Rhys Neary, Dara Flanagan, Conor Jordan; Fiachra Ó Cinnseala, Ben Holmes, Conor Hession.

Subs: Oran Murphy for Holmes (40), Fionn Ó Cinnseala for Neary (47), Oisín McCann for Fiachra Ó Cinnseala (51), Ben Joyce for Garvey (54)

Offaly: Jack Ryan; Caden O’Beirne, Tomás Carroll, Cormac Farrell; Patrick Duffy, Tadhg Kelly, Eoin Rouse; Eamon Maher, Charlie Duffy; Cathal Weldon, Dylan Dunne, Arron Daly; Tony Furey, Cian McNamee, Ruairí Woods.

Subs: Darragh Stewart for Weldon (47), Cian Duffy for Furey (54), Daniel Stoyanov for Carroll (57)

Referee: Alan Coyne (Westmeath).