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Mayo 0-20 Dublin 0-8
Hello and welcome to this evening’s game. Here is the Mayo team for today:
David Clarke (Ballina Stephenites);Kevin Keane (Westport), Shane McHale (Knockmore), Keith Higgins (Ballyhaunis); Lee Keegan (Westport), Donal Vaughan (Ballinrobe), Colm Boyle (Davitts); Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy), Danny Geraghty (Ballintubber); Kevin McLoughlin (Knockmore), Andy Moran (Ballaghaderreen), Alan Dillon (Ballintubber); Conor Mortimer (Parnells, Dublin), Barry Moran (Castlebar Mitchels), Michael Conroy (Davitts). Subs: Robert Hennelly (Breaffy), Eoghan Reilly (Castlebar Mitchels), Michael Walsh (Ardnaree), Peadar Gardiner (Crossmolina), Jason Gibbons (Ballintubber), Pat Harte (Ballina Stephenites), Jason Doherty (Burrishoole), Aidan Campbell (Swinford), Alan Freeman (Aghamore), Cillian O’Connor (Ballintubber), Evan Regan (Ballina Stephenites).
And here is the Dublin team:
Stephen Cluxton (Parnells); Cian O’Sullivan (Kilmacud Crokes), Rory O’Carroll (Kilmacud Crokes), Philly McMahon (Ballymun Kickhams); James McCarthy (Ballymun Kickhams), Ger Brennan (St Vincent’s), Kevin Nolan (Kilmacud Crokes); Michael Darragh MacAuley (Ballyboden St Enda’s), Ross McConnell (St Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh); Paul Brogan (St Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh), Barry Cahill (St Brigid’s), Bryan Cullen (Skerries Harps, captain); Tomas Quinn (St Vincent’s), Diarmuid Connolly (St Vincent’s), Kevin McManamon (St Jude’s).
N.B. Subs not named.
We’re up and running, and a point from Conroy has already put Mayo in the lead.
Great skills from Conroy, as he swivels and turns ad nauseam, before slotting over his second point of the game.
Bryan Cullen makes a strong run before fisting the ball over the bar, giving Dublin their first point of the game.
Alan Dillon restores Mayo’s two-point advantage, before Conor Mortimer makes no mistake with a free.
Dillon then adds to his side’s lead, after a bad kick-out from Cluxton.
In addition to these points, May0 have also struck three wides, thus emphasising their total dominance in the opening stages of this game.
Diarmuid Connolly is fortunate to get away with a yellow card, after seemingly throwing a punch.
Dublin are evidently showing signs of frustration already.
Meanwhile, Paddy Andrews subsequently gets a much-needed point for the visitors.
A superbly struck point from Conor Mortimer adds to his side’s advantage, making him Mayo’s all-time leading points scorer in the process.
Bryan Cullen then scores his second point of the game, after being set up by Paul Brogan.
Thereafter, Aidan O’Shea scores a wonderful point from the 45-metre line, to put Mayo into a four-point lead.
Dublin look very sluggish at the moment. It’s as if they believed they just had to show up to win this game, given Mayo’s poor form of late.
Alan Dillon builds on his fine start to this game, with his third point of the match.
Clearly not happy at the prospect of being overshadowed, Michael Conroy then scores his third point of the game for Mayo.
Dublin have made a substitution already – Paul Flynn has replaced Paul Brogan.
Mortimer scores again, after good work from Conroy. The pair are causing Dublin all sorts of problems at the moment.
Barry Moran gets his first point of the game for Mayo.
Mortimer then gets another, after sloppy passing at the back from Dublin.
There’s only one team in it at the moment.
HALF-TIME: MAYO 0-13 DUBLIN 0-5
Two late points from Tomas Quinn made the scoreline look slightly better for Dublin at half-time, but they scarcely deserve it, as Mayo have easily been the superior side so far.
The lads in the Setanta studio are pointing the finger at Cluxton’s below-par kick-outs, as one of the reasons for Dublin’s ineptitude.
The second half has begun and there’s two Dublin changes: Eamon Fennell for Ross McConnell and Craig Dias for James McCarthy.
But for all those substitutions, the balance of play has not shifted. Conor Mortimer has just scored his sixth point of the game from a free in front of the posts.
RED CARD FOR PAUL FLYNN!
Is that the final nail in the coffin for Dublin? Substitute Paul Flynn elbows Colm Boyle as the two tussle on the ground.
The blood on Boyle’s face confirms that the referee undoubtedly made the correct decision.
It’s hard to say what’s gone wrong for Dublin this evening. They’ve simply been second to every breaking ball, and look off the pace.
Connolly gets his first point of the game, with a free from roughly 50 metres.
Oddly, Dublin are playing better with 14 men than they were with 15.
Conor Mortimer gets his seventh point of the game, with a simple free. He has been the standout player for Mayo.
Dillon then gets another point for the hosts (his fourth).
I guess I spoke to soon when I naively suggested Dublin were playing better.
Michael Conroy gets another point from a difficult angle for Mayo.
At this stage, the only question that remains is how many points the home side can win by.
RED CARD FOR DIARMUID CONNOLLY!
Diarmuid Connolly gets a second yellow for a late challenge and promptly departs the field.
This game has been nothing short of a disaster, as far as Dublin are concerned.
I don’t think anyone could have predicted the sheer emphatic nature of this Mayo victory. Few people tipped them to even win the game.
The freescoring Conor Mortimer has done it again for Mayo. He really is celebrating his record-breaking feat in style.
And he’s just been named man of the match, having scored 0-8 so far.
One of the marked features of this game has been Dublin’s ill-discipline. Cian O’Sullivan has just become their seventh player to be booked, in addition to their two reds. Pat Gilroy will not be at all happy with that statistic in particular.
Meanwhile, Dean Rock has just got a consolation point in the game’s dying seconds.
FULL-TIME: MAYO 0-20 DUBLIN 0-8
In summary, to explain quite how that result happened: Mayo played as well as they possibly could, while Dublin can’t get much worse than that.
“When you get older, it’s not really about records anymore,” says Mayo’s new all-time top points scorer Conor Mortimer, who adds that there were “15 men of the match out there today”.
Mayo manager James Horan gives a modest, Declan Kidney-esque interview, saying there’s “still room for improvement” despite his side’s excellent performance, and claims he’s only thinking about “training on Tuesday,” rather than looking ahead to their upcoming games.
Right, that’s it from me. Thanks again for reading, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
