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THE CONNACHT JUNIOR Championship preliminary round is not the place you expect to see some of the most innovative tactics tried on out the GAA field but that was the case in Castlebar on Wednesday night.
Roscommon came to Mayo with a side packed with senior stars like Ultan Harney, Cathal Cregg, Peter Domican and Conor Daly and were managed by senior manager Kevin McStay looking to be hot favourites to win the game.
But Jarlath Trench’s Mayo weren’t buying that one in a game that had almost everything; they lost two of their half back line to black cards inside the first 17 minutes, but still managed to go in leading 1-8 to 1-5 at the break with Cormac Doohan finding the net and Brendan Carr leading the line in attack.
Roscommon’s greater experience was expected to pay dividends in the second half when the played with a stiff breeze and Finbar Cregg and Hubert Darcy looked to be kicking them on to victory in the final 30 minutes but Mayo kept plugging away.
With two minutes to go in normal time, Roscommon were leading by three points – Cormac Doohan kicked a point to put just two between the sides and with time ticking down the Mayo management made one of the bravest and what some might have thought maddest calls from the sideline.
All Ireland u21 winning goalkeeper Matthew Flanagan was stripped and ready to come into the action, his first attempt was thwarted when referee Shane Heir made Chris McGlynn retake a kick-out which was claimed by Roscommon and Ross Timothy slotted the ball over the bar to put three between the sides.
There was nothing left to lose for Mayo at this stage and Flanagan finally got onto the field and once he took his kick-out he raced up the pitch and got his defenders to push up leaving the goal untended.
Mayo looked to get in for a goal on the next possession, but the best the could manage was a point from Carr – to cut the gap to two. Flanagan had got himself involved in the play in the build up to the point.
With the game moving into final minute of the four additional minutes singled, the Balla netminder once again found himself in possession of the ball in open play and helped create the move that ended up with Ciarán Boylan firing the ball to the back of the net from the edge of the area past James Featherstone and steal an almost unbelievable victory for Mayo on a scoreline of 2-15 to 1-17.
Just to add to the intrigue on the night, the Ciaran Boylan who scored the goal – is the son on former Meath manager Sean Boylan – a man whose Meath team inflicted one of the most heartbreaking defeats Mayo have tasted in an All Ireland final back in 1996.