A YOUTHFUL CASTLEBAR Mitchels side dethroned the two-time defending Mayo champions Knockmore by a single point in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
Barry Moran’s men hung on at the end to pick up the win on a score of 0-12 to 0-11 with Ethan Gibbons putting in a man-of-the-match performance kicking seven points over the hour.
Mitchels led by three at half time on a score of 0-7 to 0-4, with Gibbons kicking four points in that half. Knockmore missed a couple of goal chances that came back to haunt them after the interval.
Castlebar were always able to keep their noses in front despite the best efforts of Knockmore to reel them in, absorbing the Knockmore offensive and breaking well on the counter.
The county town men were always in the lead and were one in front as the game entered four minutes of injury time, Knockmore piled on the pressure looking to work a scoring chance to send the game to extra time and when they did work a chance, Aiden Orme who kicked four points saw his effort tail wide.
In the second game of the day at the venue, Ballintubber saw off Breaffy by three points with a gritty and hard-working performance on a score of 2-11 to 0-14.
They had to play out the final 20 minutes of the game down to 14 men after Jason Gibbons was shown a straight red card, but they still managed to finish the strongest with Ciaran Gavin getting their second goal of the day six minutes from the end of normal time to give them lead to hold on too.
Ballintubber welcomed Cillian O’Connor back into the team after recent injury and ended the day with 1-5, his goal in the first half a key moment in the contest. Keelan McDonnell and Stephen O’Malley also put in big shifts with Diarmuid O’Connor also putting in a big shift in the middle third of the park.
Breaffy will feel that they should have been able to see off their neighbours when they had an extra man, but errant shooting and in ability to break down a tight and tough Ballintubber defence saw they exit the championship.
Elsewhere this weekend in the championship Westport held off a gallant Garrymore side on Saturday evening in Ballinrobe and on Sunday morning a rising Ballina Stephenites side saw off the challenge of Claremorris easily.