Derry elated as Mayo pay penalty for slow start
DERRY caught fire in Castlebar last night and set the championship ablaze in doing so.
They also condemned Mayo to the darkness of championship elimination, raising a thick cloud of questions about the future of some legendary names, and also where the team goes next.
For the third time in a major game in little more than a year, Derry prevailed on penalties, winning here 4-3, showing the class and calm that guided them through last year’s Ulster final and the league decider this year.
They have little time to recover before next weekend’s quarterfinals, but Mickey Harte will count on the restorative powers of this gripping victory, after a game that swung unpredictably, and in doing so showing the qualities of both teams – and, fatefully for Mayo, their weaknesses, too.
Conor Doherty kicked the winning penalty to trigger unconstrained joy among the players and their travelling support, and leaving most in the 13,955 attendance in MacHale Park sickened.
A first half that threatened to expose Mayo’s worst features and restore Derry’s best, was turned upside down in the second period, but just enough of both teams’ enduring characteristics lingered to send this pulsating game hurtling to this conclusion.
Mayo had been abysmal in the first half, managing three points, one from play, as Derry drew upon the cussedness that has been fleeting all summer.
They led by three at the break, but Mayo tore out for the second period, kicking three unanswered point in seven minutes to tie the game. They scored a goal through a Ryan O’Donoghue penalty in the 50th minute to lead by two, as Derry shrank and felt the ghoulish creep of recent failings.
But for the second week in a row, Mayo failed to close it out. Against Dublin in Hyde Park, it cost them a place in the quarter-finals. Here, it brought the game to extra time but it also exposed stark failings, because championship-winning teams nail down tight victories.
Mayo’s failure to do so brought extra time, and eventually the most painful sanction.
It will lead to weeks of recrimination and could see some remarkable careers come to a close too, but there was no disputing this outcome.
At the interval, extra-time would have felt like a refuge for Mayo.
Precision is vital against massed defences, and it’s Mayo’s besetting weakness.
But as a means of a rehabilitating side finding confidence, this was ideal for Derry.
They were resolute at the back, cynical when they had to be and when the officials allowed it, as they frequently did.
More importantly, some of their old fluency on the counter was back, too. Lachlan Murray was terrific, scoring four points in that first half, 0-3 from play.
Shane McGuigan and David McBrien had an intense battle, but there was evidence of McGuigan finding a recognisably classy groove.
The return of Gareth McKinless from suspension, as well as Conor Doherty’s recovery from injury, strengthened them further, and that old cussedness, shaken out of them in disastrous recent reversals, was again in evidence.
Turnovers were energetically celebrated, with Conor Glass a conspicuous fist-pumper after one early pickpocketing of an unwitting Mayo forward.
Mickey Harte had stood with his players for the national anthem in the week that fresh rumours of a rift were publicly denied.
There is no panel in the country that wouldn’t have been rattled by Derry’s nosedive since the National League final, but if this was a signal of unity, more convincing proof came with how Derry tackled a fixture that most presumed would end their year.
That did look their fate after Mayo’s rousing start to the second period, but the truth is they couldn’t sustain it. After O’Donoghue’s penalty, they managed one more score in 25 minutes of normal time – that coming, too, from the enormously influential O’Donoghue.
If he was their most viable scoring threat, Aidan O’Shea continued
his terrific summer, in this his 16th championship season. Mayo have rarely had a servant like him, though, and, on the cusp of his 34th birthday, he remains pivotal.
It was another veteran, Chrissy McKaigue, that pushed the game into extra time with a fisted point in the sixth additional minute. He had spent his share of time tangling with O’Shea and at almost 35, he’s a year older but also possessed of similar reserves of moxie.
If they had the spare mental capacity to consider it, neither manager would have welcomed extra time with Croke Park looming next weekend, but survival was filling their thoughts.
On evenings like this, when the championship feels not just alive but vital, nothing matters more than surviving – at least until midweek and the strength and conditioning folk fret over aching limbs.
What Mayo would give for tired legs this morning, though.
They took to the first half of extra time the way they did to the regulation first half, but the reprieve was not as quick coming. Where they reverted to shapeless, snail’s pace attacking, Derry were focused and effective, an Ethan Doherty double firing them into a winning position.
Jordan Flynn’s last-gasp point eventually forced penalties – but that only delayed the pain.
MAYO: C Reape; J Coyne (E Hession 58), D McBrien, D McHugh; R Brickenden (P Towey 81), S Callinan (M Plunkett 87), E McLaughlin (C Loftus HT); S Coen (capt), M Ruane (C O’Connor 68); J Carney, D McHale (D O’Connor 54), J Flynn; A O’Shea (B Tuohy 70), T Conroy, R O’Donoghue. Scorers: R O’Donoghue (1 pen, 3f) 1-4, T Conroy (1m) and J Flynn 0-2 each, S Callinan, A O’Shea, P Towey and C Loftus 0-1 each.
DERRY: O Lynch; C McCluskey, C McKaigue, D Baker (C Doherty 83); C McFaul, E McEvoy, G McKinless; C Glass (capt), B Rogers; E Doherty, E Bradley (E Mulholland 44), P Cassidy (D Gilmore 68); C Doherty (C Murphy 68), S McGuigan, L Murray (N Toner 70).
Scorers: L Murray (1m) 0-5, S McGuigan (2f) 0-4, B Rogers and E Doherty 0-2 each, G McKinless and C McKaigue 0-1 each.
REFEREE: Brendan Cawley (Sligo)