The lads may have had the luxury of not having to take something from today’s match in Castlebar but that wasn’t the case for the county’s women footballers, who had to get at least a draw from their final round Division One game this afternoon.

It was either themselves or opponents Donegal for the drop arising from today’s match in Letterkenny. Thanks to a first half goal glut, it was the Green and Red who emerged as winners, their 5-9 to 3-2 victory enough to preserve their top tier status for next year after what was a difficult League campaign for them.

The Westerners set out their stall early at O’Donnell Park, with Rachel Kearns bagging a goal on two minutes to open the day’s scoring. Further goals followed over the course of the first half, with Sinéad Walsh, Lisa Cafferky and Deirdre Doherty all finding the net, as Mayo took a 4-5 to 0-1 lead into the break.

Donegal scored three goals in the second half but this salvo came right at the end, by which time Sinéad Cafferky had got Mayo’s fifth goal and the result of the game was beyond doubt. Those goals for the home side narrowed the margin of defeat, but Michael Moyles’ team still prevailed by an emphatic thirteen points.

Match report by Frank Craig for Ladies Football is here.

Well done to the women on retaining their Division One status and here’s to a positive Championship to come from them this summer.