Moycullen (Galway) 3-18
Westport (Mayo) 1-12
Colm Gannon reports from Hastings Insurance MacHale Park
MOYCULLEN LAID DOWN a marker of intent that they are going to take stopping in the Connacht Club Senior Football Championship with a powerful display against Westport in Castlebar on Sunday.
The Galway champions missed out on competing in the provincial series when they won the 2020 Covid effected county championship, but this year they are going for provincial glory.
Inspired by Dessie Conneely who hit ten points, five from play and five frees over the 50 minutes he was on the field, Moycullen pulled Westport from pillar to post for the entire game.
Moycullen showed their ambition inside the opening minute when Niall Walsh fired over the bar inside the opening minute, that was quickly canceled out by a Fionn McDonagh effort.
Two points in quick succession from Conneely had Moycullen two to the good – before Westport hit for the first goal of the game. The Westport centre back Brian McDermott drove home from close range after a flowing move through the middle of the Moycullen defence. That score was followed up quickly afterwards by an Oisin McLaughlin point to put Westport ahead 1-2 to 0-3 – but they weren’t to score again for 15 minutes.
In that time period Moycullen took complete control of the game with Conneely kicking four points and Eoghan Kelly also getting in on the action. Three of Conneely’s points came from play in that run, each of them better than the one that came before.
Westport looked to stem the flow by putting Lee Keegan back on Conneely and introducing Eoghan McLaughlin from the bench but it failed to have the desired impact.
Killian Kilkelly stemmed the tide a bit for Westport with a point from a free to bring the score back to 1-3 to 0-8, but scores from Walsh and two more from Conneely had Moycullen looking pretty and when Daniel Cox rolled in their goal the game looked to be done and dusted before the break, they lead 1-11 to 1-4 at that point.
Owen Gallagher got things going in the second half for Moycullen with a point two minutes after the resumption. Westport tried to grind their way back into the contest but a series of wides early in the final 30 minutes saw that chance drift out of reach.
They did managed to get it back to a six-point deficit at one stage following points from Kilkelly and Mark Moran, but when Paul Kelly and Conneely tapped over points to stretch the lead back out to eight the game was done.
Moycullen added two more goals before the end through Michael O’Reilly who palmed home after a fine move finished with him being found by Eoin Kelly and Aidan Claffey rounded off the scoring just before the start of injury time.
There was still time for both Lee Keegan and Donal Wynne to be shown red cards, with Keegan picking up two yellows in the space of a minute and Wynne getting a straight red right at the death.
Scorers for Moycullen: Dessie Conneely (0-10, 5f), Niall Walsh (0-4, 2f), Micheál Reilly (1-0), Daniel Cox (1-0), Aidan Claffey (1-0), Paul Kelly (0-2), Eoin Kelly (0-1), Owen Gallagher (0-1).
Scorers for Westport: Killian Kilkelly (0-7, 0-5f), Brian McDermott (1-0), Oisin McLaughlin (0-2), Fionn McDonagh (0-1), Rory Brickenden (0-1), Mark Moran (0-1)
Moycullen
16. Andrew Power
17. Conor Corcoran, 4. Niall Mulcahy, Michael Moughan
6. David Wynne, 5. Eoghan Kelly, 25. Micheál Reilly
12. Paul Kelly, 9. Tom Clarke
19. Ger Daveron, 14. Niall Walsh, 3. Sean Kelly
13. Daniel Cox, 15. Dessie Conneely, 24. Eoghan Gallagher
Subs
11. Conor Bohan for Cox
7. Aidan Claffey for Moughan
8. Mark Lydon for Clarke
10. Evan Kenny for O’Reilly
Cian Deane for Sean Kelly
Westport
1. Paddy O’Malley
2. Luke Tunney, 3. Rory Brickenden, 4. Niall McManamon
5. Liam Shevlin, 6. Brian McDermott, 7. Paul Lambert
8. Lee Keegan, 9. Brian O’Malley
10. Conal Dawson, 11. Fionn McDonagh, 12. Oisin McLaughlin
13. Kevin Keane, 14. Mark Moran, 21. Killian Kilkelly
Subs
24. Eoghan McLaughlin for O’Malley
20. Shane Scott for Shevlin
15. Pat Lambert for Dawson
22. Finbarr McLaughlin for Niall McManamon
19. Ronan Geraghty for Eoghan McLaughlin