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Mayo's Conor Loftus scores his goal. INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan
Convincing

Mayo minors earn All-Ireland football final spot with comfortable win

The seniors will hope for similar success later this afternoon.

Mayo 3-19
Monaghan 1-12

MAYO HAVE BOOKED a spot in the All-Ireland minor football final with a convincing 13 point win over Monaghan in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Connacht side started the brighter of the two and opened the scoring through Michael Hall on two minutes after the wing back tore through the Monaghan defence before slotting over a neat point.

For their part, Monaghan came close to raising the green flag on four minutes when Ferghal McMahon flicked the ball as David McAllister raced through. However, his left foot shot was diverted away by the foot of Mayo goalkeeper Mark Mulligan.

Mayo were the stronger side for much of the first half and with Monaghan unable to score from play, they were rocked when Conor McCarthy found the net for Monaghan.

However, they hit back with a goal of their own just seconds later after a high ball caused chaos in the Monaghan defence and Conor Loftus forced the umpire to raise the green flag.

The flow of the game was disrupted significantly with a serious injury to Mayo’s Cian Hanley (brother of AFL star Pearce) but the Connacht champions still went in with a 1-10 to 1-6 half time lead.

The game looked over as a contest just five minutes into the second half when a long range effort from Mayo hit the post and Michael Plunkett was the first to react and shoot home. A point by Liam Irwin moments later gave them a nine point lead.

Mayo kept tacking on the points for the rest of the second half until Tommy Conroy’s emphatic finish gave them their third goal of the day six minutes from time.

They will now face either Roscommon or Tyrone in the final.

Scorers for Mayo: Michael Plunkett 1-2, Tommy Conroy, Conor Loftus 1-1 each, Darragh Doherty 0-4, Liam Irwin 0-3 (0-2f), Stephen Coen, Michael Hall, Padraig Prendergast 0-2 each, Cian Hanley, Conor Byrne 0-1 each.
Scorers for Monaghan: Conor McCarthy 1-4, David McAllister 0-3 (0-3f), Ferghal McMahon 0-2 (0-1f), Conor Forde (0-1 ’45), Ryan McAnespie 0-1 each.

MAYO: Mark Mulligan; Eddie Doran, Seamus Cunniffe, David Kenny; Michael Hall, Stephen Coen, Sean Conlon; Val Roughneen, Diarmuid O’Connor; Conor Loftus, Michael Plunkett, Cian Hanley; Darragh Doherty, Liam Irwin, Tommy Conroy.

Subs: Padraig Prendergast for Hanley (inj) (26), Conor Byrne for Doherty (50), Ronan Finn for Doran (53), James Langan for Plunkett (57), Fionan Duffy for Irwin (60).

MONAGHAN: Conor Forde; Paul McArdle, Kevin Loughran, Shane Treanor; Adam Kieran, Ryan McAnespie, Mervyn Brown; Mark Magee, Mikey Murnaghan; Desmond Ward, Aodh Curran, Michael O’Dowd; Ferghal McMahon, David McAllister, Conor McCarthy.

Subs: Donal Meegan for Brown (22), Niall Loughman for Kieran (30), Barry McGinn for O’Dowd (half-time), Ciaran Martin for McArdle (35), Adam Treanor for Shane Treanor (47).

Referee: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow)

LIVE: Mayo v Tyrone, All-Ireland senior football semi-final

Enda Kenny was having the craic with Mayo fans outside Croke Park today