THE FOUR-IN-a-row chasing Castlebar Mitchels booked their place in the semi-finals of the Mayo senior football championship with a 1-20 to 2-9 win over Claremorris in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon.
Mayo senior star Paddy Durcan finished the day with four points and his twin brother James with three, while Neil Douglas continued to show why he is the most dangerous club forward in the county with a personal haul of six points all from play.
Mitchels did the heavy lifting in the first half going in leading by 1-12 to 1-0 with Aidan Walsh getting the goal for Castlebar and Conor Diskin getting Claremorris’ sole score for the entire 30 minutes.
The second half was a matter of just getting though it, but Claremorris showed plenty of pride and outscored the defending county champions by 1-9 to 0-8, with their goal coming from a penalty by James Shaughnessy.
But Castlebar were able to keep themselves well ahead all the way through with Paddy Durcan kicking three second half points and they now look forward to a repeat of last year’s county final against Ballintubber in two weeks time.
Andy Moran’s Ballaghaderreen pulled off a minor upset seeing off Garrymore by two points, 3-11 to 0-18, in the last quarter-final of the weekend.
Two first-half goals from Darragh Kelly and a second-half three pointer from inter-county man Cian Hanley was the difference at the end of an exciting encounter.
Ballaghderreen led by 2-4 to 0-7 at the break after playing with the aid of a strong breeze in the first half with Barry Regan kicking three points and Andy Moran the other for the east Mayo side.
Garrymore kept themselves in touch thanks to four points from Paul Deely and two from Mark Tierney as they looked to overcome the great start that Ballaghderreen got.
Both sides went toe to toe in the second half, but the greater experience of the victors saw them home with Andy Moran pulling the strings in the middle and three points from midfielder Ryan Lynch key to their win.
2018 Mayo senior football championship
Semi-final draw
Breaffy v Ballaghderreen
Ballintubber v Castlebar Mitchels
Quarter-final results
Castlebar Mitchels 1-20 Claremorris 2-9
Ballaghederreen 3-11 Garrymore 0-18
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!