Mayo 4-12
Leitrim 0-15
Colm Gannon reports from Carrick-on-Shannon
MAYO BOOKED A spot in the EirGrid Connacht U21 football final for the first time in seven years with a goal glut in Carrick on Shannon in this evening’s semi-final.
They put the result of this game out of doubt when they kicked 2-5 without reply in the opening 15 minutes of the second half in a brilliant period off football.
Fionan Duffy got Mayo’s third major of the game in the 36th minute when he was played by Brian Reape after mix up on a Leitrim kick-out. The Mayo full forward then bustled Diarmuid McKiernan’s net for the fourth time after being found by Diarmuid O’Connor in acres of space.
Those scores killed off whatever chance Leitrim had of beating Mayo for the first time in the U21 championship in 25 years.
Leitrim did kick on in the final ten minutes with Conor Gaffney kicking six points in the closing stages, but by the stage his run of scores kicked off, Mayo were leading by 4-10 to 0-8.
Leitrim had hit the ground running in Carrick on Shannon, reeling off the first three points of the game inside the opening six minutes.
Pearse Dolan opened the scoring right from throw in and that was swiftly followed by a score form Conor Gaffney and one from Kenny Cox.
Mayo struggled to get to grips with the game early on and a long range score from Brian Reape settled their nerves seven minutes in.
Mayo then hit a little purple patch of their own and kicked three points on the bounce with Conor Loftus clipping over a free and Fergal Boland and Fionan Duffy adding the others. Leitrim responded with a brace from wing forward Daire Farrell.
Matthew Ruane made an immediate introduction from the bench levelling the game up at 0-5 apiece with ten minutes to go to the break, and from here on in Mayo really cut loose.
Brian Reape got his first goal of the game when he palmed the ball over the line after good work by Stephen Coen and Diarmuid O’Connor finished to the back of the net from the penalty spot on the 24 minute mark after Duffy was fouled.
Leitrim did get the last two scores of the half to go in trailing by 2-5 to 0-7 at the break.
Scores for Mayo: Brian Reape 2-4, Fionan Duffy 1-2 (0-1f), Conor Loftus 0-4 (0-1f), Diarmuid O’Connor 1-0 (1-0 pen), Fergal Boland 0-2, Matthew Ruane 0-1.
Scorers for Leitrim: Conor Gaffney 0-7 (0-5f), Pearse Dolan 0-3, Daire Farrell 0-2, Ryan O’Rourke, Jack Heslin, Kenny Cox 0-1 each.
Mayo
1. Matthew Flanagan (Balla)
2. Eddie Doran (Achill)
3. Seamus Cunniffe (Ballaghaderreen)
4. Ciaran Harrison (Aghamore)
5. David Kenny (Aghamore)
6. Michael Hall (Breaffy)
7. James Kelly (Belmullet)
8. Val Roughneen (Balla)
9. Stephen Coen (Hollymount/Carramore – captain)
10. Fergal Boland (Aghamore)
11. Conor Loftus (Crossmolina)
12. Diarmuid O’Connor (Ballintubber)
13. Michael Plunkett (Ballintubber)
14. Brian Reape (Moy Davitts)
15. Fionan Duffy (Crossmolina)
Subs
23.Matthew Ruane for Roughneen (19)
17. Sharoize Akram for Kelly (half-time)
21. Eoin O’Donnoghe for Cunniffe (34, blood sub)
3. Seamus Cunniffe for O’Donoghue (42, blood sub)
21. Eoin O’Donoghue for Hall (45)
20. James Lyons for Loftus (45)
18. TJ Byrne for O’Connor (54)
24. Mikey Murrey for Coen (56)
Leitrim
1. Diarmuid McKiernan
2. Keelan McHugh
3. Enda Fowley
4. James Mitchell
5. Conor Cullen
6. Fergal McTeague
7. Keith Keegan
8. Dean McGovern
9. Pearse Dolan
10. Kenny Cox
11. Conor Gaffney
12. Daire Farrell
13. Ryan O’Rourke
14. Cathal McCauley
15. Jack Heslin
Subs
18. Liam Ryan for Mitchell (24)
19. Conor Dolan for McCauley (39)
17. Oisin Madden for McGovern (49)
21. Declan Byrne for Farrell (52)
Referee: John Gilmartin (Sligo)
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