Photo: @MayoGAA
The U21s continued their winning run in the Hastings Cup when this afternoon at Ballina they shaded a close enough contest against Wicklow, winning by 0-1 1 to 0-9. It was their third win on the trot in this tournament and it sees them through to the semi-final next weekend.
Wicklow drew first blood with a point after ten minutes but the game’s first major incident occurred midway through the half when Wicklow’s full-forward Johnny Delahunt was ordered off for a black card offence. The match was tied at two points apiece at that stage but our lads then opened up a three-point gap before Wicklow bookended the first half scoring with a point just before the break.
Our lead increased to three points once again after the break but three points without a reply hauled the Garden County level ten minutes into the second period. The next score was obviously going to be a crucial one and it was Mayo captain Adam Gallagher who got it to edge us one clear again. With ten minutes to go we were still just one point to the good but the lads held their heads well down the closing stretch and won by two points in the end.
I’ve no idea who our opponents will be in next Saturday’s semi-final but I guess all will be revealed in due course on that front.
Mayo team and scorers: Sean Shaughnessy; Mark Forkan, David Kenny, David Stretton; Cian Burke, Sean Regan (0-1), Patrick Durcan; Matthew Ruane, Val Roughneen; TJ Byrne, Adam Gallagher (0-5, three frees), Darren McHale (0-1); Ronan Carolan (0-1), Liam Irwin (0-1), James Quinn. Subs: Steven Conroy for Byrne, James Durcan (0-1) for McHale, Eoghan Lavin (0-1) for Quinn, Aidan O’Sullivan for Carolan, Michael Hall for Patrick Durcan, Kevin Lynch for Stretton.
The hurlers’ winning start to the year, meanwhile, came to an end today when they were well beaten by GMIT. The final score from Carnmore was 2-18 to 1-10.
Thanks to @MayoAdvertSport, @MayoGAA and @MayoClub51 for all the updates on today’s action.
Good win for the boys, never got out of 2nd gear and Wicklow got 3 very soft frees, all from James Stretton, in the second half. And I am absolutely positive that Wicklow were awarded 2 points at one stage. We were 0-06 0-04 up, they got a point, and suddenly it was level!!
I heard we would be playing Tyrone in the semi-final in Ballina next weekend. No idea how true it is though!
You heard wrong as Tyrone aren’t playing in the Hastings cup. 4 group winners Roscommon,Laois and the winner of Tipp v Galway on Tuesday night will be one of the opponents. Its a longford GAA ran tournament the semi final and final will be played in Longford venues.
Hopefully we’ll see a few more players tried today who haven’t seen game time in the FBD to date. Danny Kirby, Darren Coen and Gavin Duffy are three that I’d love to see don the green and red jersey today.
Team for today vs Rossies just announced by “@MayoGAA: The #mayogaa XV O’Malley, Barrett, Vaughan, Keegan, Boyle, S Coen, Drake, SOS, Moran, McLoughlin, Lyons, D O’Connor, Varley, Doherty, D Coen”
More familiar faces reappearing. Lots of experimenting still evident, especially in the forwards, but clearly building for Kerry in two weeks time
Glad to see D Coen starting, hope he goes well.
Supposedly Duffy unavailable due to the connacht rugby game and his work commitments. Shame as we needed to see him in the FBD
The U21 Hastings Cup semi-finals are as follows:
Saturday 24 January
Mayo v Roscommon, Lanesboro, Longford, 2pm
Galway v Leitrim, Abbeylara, Longford, 2pm
Its interesting to see that four Connacht teams have made the semis. With Mayo not playing in the FBD League final, we should have a strong U21 team playing against Roscommon.