1996/99
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Galway bring curtain down on champions
GAA
27 May 1998
Bank of Ireland Connacht Championship
MAYO MUST GO BACK TO THE FUTURE
Big match report and analysis
By John Melvin
There is a book in it. And maybe, just maybe, it will be written by a team manager. John Maughan (Mayo) and Tommy Lyons (Offaly) will have the summer to think about it. It is called ' 'How to occupy your time when you are kicked out of the championship'. It could also be called 'is there life after death in the championship' or even 'Now I have time to really work on my golf'.
For if one can experience death, and live to tell the tale, then I certainly felt its' cold hands around my throat at McHale Park on Sunday evening where it suddenly dawned on me, and thousands of Mayo supporters, that they will be redundant for the rest of 98.
Asking Mayo supporters if they felt a bit down in the mouth on Sunday was like asking those getting off the famine ships if they were hungry. Maybe we have been enjoying the fruits of the team's labours for the past two years so much that we forgot what it is like to go hungry.
When you are basking in the sun for a long period it is difficult to cope with chilling draught of defeat. For two years now Mayo have comforted themselves with the thought of All-Ireland success. Being champions of Connaught became as much a right as an expectation.
The leveller that is the championship, has, if nothing else, reminded us that the only certainty when it comes to championship football is that you only get one shot. You blow it. Your gone.
Now we know what it is like to lose again. After two glorious years and a bucketful of memories, it was difficult to come to the sudden realisation that the party is over. The banners have to come down even before they go up. . The well has run dry. It is time to take stock. There is a new team on the block. That team is Galway. Whether Galway are going to dominate for the coming years and whether Mayo will go into decline are questions that will be answered in the years ahead.
But that is for another day. I think it is only fair that John Maughan and his men should at least be given the dignity of a decent period of mourning before the recriminations and the accusations will come in time. Let us hope, like Mayo in defeat, they are dignified, reasoned and without prejudice.
There will be talk of new managers. New players to be brought in. Old players retiring, but for the moment Mayo have to live with the fact that they were not good enough in 98 and plan ahead to alter that in 99. If there was no tomorrow then today would hardly be worth living. But no matter how or where we may try to apportion blame for Sunday's defeat, at the end of the day it was obvious the old appetite is not what is used to be.
Toll
You can bring a horse to the well but if he's not thirsty it can be a wasted journey. Perhaps two years has take its toll. Mayo visibly tired in the second half. Players were that yard slower. The bite and hunger which saw them take Galway in Tuam last year was gone.
But it wasn't all down to Mayo's apparent lack of enthusiasm at time. They came up against Galway side very determined to make the breakthrough and emerge from te shadow which Mayo has cast over them for the last two years. We wish them well on the championship road as we know, it is a long one fraught with dangers and there is always the fear of an ambush, and they may not have to go out of Connacht to be bushwhacked.
John O'Mahony was the first to admit it was far from a flawless performance Despite Galway dominance in that second half they could still had their semi-final ticket pilfered from their pocket. Mayo did have the chances. Sadly they didn't avail of them and while Kieran McDonald could have drawn this match ten minutes from time we will never know whether it would have provided the spur for Mayo to dig even deep into the vast reservoir of experience which we thought just might carry them over the line at the end.
But in the end it was Galway who had the composure, and, more importantly, the forwards with the blistering pace to cause so many problems for the Mayo defence.
Kenneth Mortimer, Kevin Cahill and Fergal Costello were sending out stress signals as the Galway full forward line came at them and while Martin McNamara made some superb saves for Galway, I think it would be fair to say that Peter Burke kept Mayo in the game longer than they would have been had he not been so vigilant.
Burke did all he could but at the other end Mayo's lack of scoring thrust was cruelly exposed in the second half as the Galway defence took control and held them to a single point for the entire second half.
It wasn't their only chance, but it was the only chance they took in a game that produced an invigorating first half which ended level and produced three goals with quality and class written all over them.
Kieran McDonald's two goals were clinically taken, one set up by a John Casey steal and the other by the enterprise of David Nestor. McDonald had his spot picked before he let fly with his lethal left foot on both occasions. But the goal of the match was taken by Derek Savage and I have no doubt it will stand with some of the best we are likely to see in the Word Cup in France. He judge the angle and stance of the keeper to perfection as he sent a dipping shot into eh top corner.
Yes, I don't think we could fault either team for entertainment in the first half. And while Galway were the more culpable of the two when it came to making mistakes, it was Mayo who looked the better organised team in the first sixteen minutes when McDonald's first goal lifted them into a three point lead 1-3 to 0-3. Maurice Sheridan had been gifted the opening score on three minutes when he picked up Tomás Meehan's careless clearance. Sheridan had a super. first half, despite his below par free taking.
By the 14th minute the sides were level at 0-3 each.
Tomás Mannion, posted to left half back in a defence which saw John Divilly rule acres of territory at centre half back, made a profitable burst to to level matters when he opened Galway's account in the 4th minute.
Padraig Joyce stroked over his first free to put Galway in front but Sheridan replied and the same player had Mayo back in front with an excellent point from play.
Horan put David Nestor through for what should have been a goal but for McNamara's vigilance but a Finnegan free had the sides level before McDonald struck with his first goal which was set up by Casey who intercepted a bad pass from the Galway keeper.
We got the first real glimpse of Ja Fallon who scored a classy point but Noel Connelly made a tremendous burst to keep this game bubbling over and when James Horan snapped up quick the e free to score with ease, Mayo had taken a four point lead with nine minutes left in the half.
Go Wrong
.In a way, things began to go wrong for the Connacht champions after this. Liam McHale was ploughing a lone furrow at midfield where Galway were breaking down a lot of ball and Kevin Walsh was becoming a growing influence. De Paor, Silke and Divilly were coming more into it on the Galway half back line and the Galway forwards were getting fast ball and were getting there before their markers.
Joyce stroked over another free, Finnegan scored what was arguably the point of the match when his long range effort just came in off the post, and when Fallon set up Clancy for point, the gap was back to just one after 29 minutes.
A bad mistake by Colm McMenamon ended with Finnegan cutting in on the by-line to fist over the levelling point five minutes from the break. David Nestor could only hold his head in disbelief when he had a great chance of point after McHale and Casey opened the space but in a forty second period the nets at both ends were dancing, Savage curling a beauty into the top corner for Galway but Mayo moving the ball swiftly down field where McMenamon picked out Nestor with a good pass and he in turn gave it to McDonald who sent it crashing to the net. One couldn't have asked for a better climax to a half than two cracking goals and the sides going interval. What unfolded in the second half, at least from a Mayo point of view, bore little resemblance to the first. And yet, despite all the ball Galway had they never closed the door tight until the final few minutes.
In fact Mayo missed a couple of point chances in the opening minutes. Sheridan was short with a fifty, Horan missed the target but Finnegan had the easier of chances but sent a free wide for Galway before Joyce finally got the lead point in the 43rd minute.
Burke produced a superb reflex save to deny Donnellan and it was Donnellan, a growing influence in the second half who put Ja Fallon through to put Galway two points clear. Kevin O'Neill, warming up for ten minutes finally came in but it was something of a surprise to see James Horan withdrawn. At this point the Mayo ship was beginning to list.
But the pressure was building on Mayo. Burke came to the rescue again when he denied De Paor from close range. Galway were in charge. Holding possession, picking out holes in the Mayo defence, staying calm. Mayo were the ones now making mistakes, forcing the game under pressure. A reprieve came when McDonald curled over a fine point with fifteen minute left. Mayo ere still hanging in and it was McDonald who had his effort saved by the keeper as Mayo had one last throw of the dice by withdrawing an off-colour David Brady, moving Heaney to midfield and pushing Pat Holmes into the fray.
But the game probably turned on McDonald's cracking shot which came off the under side of the crossbar, and maybe it was my imagination, but I think I saw the umpire twitch, move muscle in the hand, but the ball was cleared before he ever got chance to decide if the ball might have been over the line.
But it wasn't until five minutes from the end that Galway finally got the seal of approval and a crucial point, from a free earned by Finnegan, just before McDonald was only inches wide with what could have been the equalising score.
Finnegan, was fouled, Joyce obliged, and Finnegan himself polished off two more fress conceded by a beleaguered Mayo defence in the final two minutes to bring the champions to their knees.
Now they must get up again. I don't see why not.
Match stats... Match stats...... Match stats.
Final Score: Galway 1-13 Mayo 2-6
Half-time: Mayo 2-5 Galway 1-8
Scores for Galway: P. Joyce (0-5-3 frees); N. Finnegan 0-4-3 frees); D. savage (1-0); J. Fallon (0-2); P. Clancy (0-1); T. Mannion (0-1). Scores for Mayo: K. McDonald (2-1); M. Sheridan (0-3, 1 free); J. Horan (0-1); N. Conneely (0-1).
Galway: M. McNamara, J. Divilly, G. Fahy, T. Meehan, S. Og De Paor, R. Silke, T. Mannion, K. Walsh, S. O'Domhnail, P. Joyce, J. Fallon, P. Clancy, D. Savage, N. Finnegan, M. Donnellan. Subs: S. Meehan for Clancy (48 mins); T. Joyce for O'Domhnail (69).
Mayo: P. Burke, K. Mortimer, K. Cahill, F. Costello, D. Heaney, J. Nallen, N. Conneely, L. McHale, D. Brady, J. Horan, C. McManamon, D. Nestor, K. McDonald, J. Casey, M. Sheridan. Subs: K. O'Neill for Horan (47 mins); P. Holmes for Brady (53 mins); R. Dempsey for Nestor (57 mins).
Ref: E. Neary (Sligo)
Wides: Mayo 8 Galway 9.
Attendance: 32,000
Conditions: Ideal
