A general view of Tuam Stadium. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile
Electric Ireland Connacht Minor Football Championship
Mayo 2-13 Roscommon 2-7
Galway 0-11 Sligo 2-5
Kobe McDonald, son of former Crossmolina and Mayo footballing legend Ciarán, was the star of the show in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park this evening, where Mayo commenced their Electric Ireland Connacht minor football championship campaign with a 2-13 to 2-7 win over Roscommon.
Dean Casey opened Roscommon’s account before McDonald announced his presence with a free from outside the 45m line to level up the game, the first score out of his 1-5 tally on the night.
Scores were hard to come by in the first half as Oisín Deane, Evan Walsh and Harry McHale joined McDonald on the scoresheet to nudge Mayo 0-6 to 0-4 ahead at half-time.
With the wind at their backs in the second half, Roscommon looked to be in a good position at that stage, and even more so when Casey capitalised on a defensive error to score the game’s first goal.
Instead Mayo were galvanised. Andrew Quinn struck back with a goal in response, the home side added three more points, and while Stephen Tighe hit two in succession for the Rossies, McDonald fired his goal into the roof of the net and Mayo cruised to victory from there, home and hosed by the time Eoin Collins struck a late consolation goal for the visitors.
Earlier this evening, a gorgeous score from Galway’s Luke Dempsey after just 20 seconds of Galway’s home game against Sligo at Tuam Stadium suggested that supporters might be in for a real shootout at the famous North Galway venue, but instead they got a tense a dramatic thriller that ended with the spoils shared, 0-11 to 2-5.
After conceding the first two scores, a pair of Niall Duffy frees brought Sligo back on terms as they played into a tricky diagonal breeze in the first half.
The breakthrough the Yeats County needed arrived in the 25th minute when Marc Clifford got in behind the Galway defence to collect a long Conor McDonagh free and slip a clever left-footed shot into the bottom corner, helping the away side take a 1-2 to 0-3 interval lead.
Route one football was Sligo’s friend again with eight minutes gone in the second half, this time it was Adam Feeney who collected a long ball and showed good composure to calmly find the net to make it 2-4 to 0-6.
Sligo were only able to add one more point for the remainder of the game however, while Galway slowly ate into the lead. Charlie Killeen’s stunning score on the run was a real highlight, but it still wasn’t until the fourth minute of stoppage time that centre forward Killian Joyce tied up the game to ensure an unbeaten start for both counties.
