Castlebar Mitchels 4-10
Breaffy 0-9
Colm Gannon reports from MacHale Park
HAT-TRICK HERO Neil Douglas put in a man-of-the-match performance for Castlebar Mitchels who saw off Breaffy for the second time in three years to claim the Mayo senior championship.
Mitchels romped home to a 13 point win in a misty MacHale Park thanks to an impressive team effort. The county town men even handled the loss of Barry Moran to a black card early in the second half as the nullified the threat that Breaffy and Aidan O’Shea posed over the hour. Mitchels first half performance laid the foundation of the win, going in six points ahead.
Breaffy needed goals if they were to get back into the game early in the second half and twice inside the opening three minutes of the half they were denied. Tommy O’Reilly cracked an effort of the bar inside the first minute of the half and three minutes later Matthew Ruane saw his effort blocked on the line by Alan Feeney.
Mitchels went down the field and reeled off two points on the bounce with Kirby and Richie Feeney raising the white flag. Ten minutes into the half the goal that broke the back of the Breaffy resistance came when a move started by Richie Feeney was finished to the net by Douglas for his second goal.
From then on it there was only ever going to be one winner and Douglas put the final word on the game when he flicked the ball over Robbie Hennelly to seal the win and his hat-trick.
Goals win games and two, first half goals in the 21st and 27th minute put Castlebar into a winning position they never surrendered. The first goal came from the boot of Danny Kirby who pulled on a bouncing ball on the deck inside the small square to raise the green flag.
The goal came from some great work, by Ray O’Malley and Donie Newcombe who worked the ball down the right hand side from their own full back line. Newcombe was eventually dispossessed close to goal, but Breaffy failed to clear and Kirby was the man in the right place at the right time to apply the finish.
The second goal was a brilliant finish from Neil Douglas who fired home on the run after Richie Feeney had done the donkey work out on the right wing. That score put Mitchels 2-5 to 0-3 into the lead and the gap was extended two minutes later when Kirby punched over a free that dropped short.
Up to the two goals it had been a close encounter, with Mitchels the slightly better side. Tommy Reilly opened the scoring four minutes in with a well taken free for Breaffy and that was followed two minutes later by another pointed free this time from the boot of Conor O’Shea.
Aidan Walsh got Mitchels moving eight minutes in with a free from close range and on the ten minute mark Kriby levelled the game up. Mitchels went into the lead for the first time 19 minutes in when Eoghan O’Reilly fired over a great score from the left hand side. Kirby’s goal was the next score and that was followed by a free from Aidan Walsh and one from Neil Douglas to leave the score 1-5 to 0-3.
Breaffy did rally towards the end of the half with Gary Walsh and Seamus O’Shea kicking points leaving the score 2-6 to 0-5 at the short whistle.
Scores for Castlebar Mitchels: Neil Douglas (3-1, 1f), Danny Kirby (1-3), Aidan Walsh (0-3, 3f), Eoghan O’Reilly, Richie Feeney (0-1), James Durcan (0-1 each )
Scores for Breaffy: Conor O’Shea (0-4,1f), Robbie Hennelly (1f), Tommy Reilly (1f), Seamus O’Shea, Peter Dravins, Gary Walsh (0-1 each)
Castlebar Mitchels
1 Rory Byrne
25 Alan Feeney
3 Ray O’Malley
4. Donie Newcomebe
5 Paddy Durcan
6 Eoghan O’Reilly
7 Ger McDonagh
8 Aidan Walsh
9 Barry Moran
10 Shane Hopkins
11 Niall Lydon
12 Neil Douglas
17 Tom Cunniffe
14 Richie Feeney
15 Danny Kirby
Subs
20 James Durcan for Richie Feeney (BS, 23mins)
14 Richie Feeney for James Durcan (BS, 25 mins)
20 James Durcan for Barry Moran (BC 34 mins)
18 Cian Costello for Shane Hopkins (43 mins)
19 Fergal Durkan for Neil Lydon (44 mins)
21 Ronan Burke for Ray O’Malley (47 mins)
2 Sean Conlan for Donie Newcombe (52 mins)
23 Mark Towey for Richie Feeney (56 mins)
Breaffy
1 Robbie Hennelly
2 Colm Jordan
3 Micheal Jennings
22 Daire Morrin
5 Rory Martyn
6 Colm Kelly
7 David Gavin
8 Robbie Fadden
9 Seamus O’Shea
10 Conor O’Shea
11 Aidan O’Shea
19 Keith Mulchrone
13 Gareth Dunne
27 Gary Walsh
15 Tommy Reilly
Subs
12 Matthew Ruane for Gareth Dunne (25 mins)
23 Dylan Cannon for Colm Kelly (40 mins)
25 Liam Irwin for 19 Keith Mulchrone (42 mins)
14 Gerry Jennings for Gary Walsh (42 mins)
26 Peter Dravins for Robbie Fadden (49 mins)
4 Daire Morrin for Rory Martyn (52 mins)