Michael Solan’s U21s made it two wins from two in the North-West Cup earlier on today when they galloped to an easy 3-12 to 0-4 victory over Sligo at Crossmolina. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to St Tiernan’s Park for the game so what follows is an account of the action stitched together from the informative updates tweeted from the Deel Rovers ground by @mayogaa.
It was wing-back Sharoize Akram who opened the scoring for us today with a point from play. The Ballaghaderreen player then turned provider for the second, feeding local lad Fionan Duffy who pointed to put us two clear.
Goalkeeper Matthew Flanagan, who replaced Scott Kilker between the posts prior to the throw-in, got our next score, from a ’45. Sligo then cut the gap back to the minimum with two quick points but there was clear daylight between the sides soon after when Brian Reape was hauled down in the square and Fionan Duffy dispatched the resultant spot-kick to the net.
It was Fionan Duffy who also knocked over our three next points and the one after that, pointed by Brian Reape, stretched our lead to seven points. The Yeats lads had the final say of the first half with their fourth point of the day, leaving the half-time score 1-7 to 0-4 in our favour.
Fionan Duffy had bagged 1-4 of our first half total but he played no further part in the game, with Liam Irwin replacing him for the second half. Scott Kilker also came on before the restart in place of Matthew Flanagan in goals.
The second half was complete one-way traffic: our lads added a further 2-5 to their total before the end whereas Sligo failed to register another score before the final whistle was blown.
Fergal Boland got us underway again after the break with a point. Liam Irwin was then fouled in the square but the ball squirted loose to Brian Reape who, according to @mayogaa “got a boot to it somehow” to net it and push us ten points clear.
Further misery was heaped on the Magpies via another Sharoize Akram point and a second goal from Brian Reape. A free from Liam Irwin, one from play by Matthew Flanagan and a free from Colm Reape (who replaced his namesake in the second half) closed out an emphatic 17-point win for our lads.
I’ll leave it to @mayogaa to summarise the contest and who performed best for us today:
Great performance today against a poor side and heavy conditions. Some standout performances from Akram, B.Reape and Fionan Duffy #mayogaa
— Mayo GAA (@MayoGAA) January 9, 2016
Mayo: Matthew Flanagan (0-1, ’45); Eddie Doran, Seamus Cunniffe, Ciaran Harrison; Jason Forkan, James Kelly, Sharoize Akram (0-2); Ryan Lynch, Val Roughneen; Fergal Boland (0-1), Michael Plunkett (0-1), Matthew Ruane; Ronan Carolan, Brian Reape (2-1), Fionan Duffy (1-4, penalty goal and a free). Subs: Scott Kilker for Flanagan, Liam Irwin (0-1, free) for Fionan Duffy, Barry Duffy for Forkan, James Lyons for Ruane, Colm Reape (0-1, free) for Brian Reape, Morgan Lyons for Plunkett, Michael Murray for Roughneen, Cathal Barrett for Carolan.
PS: Fermangh beat Donegal by a point, 2-4 to 1-6, in the other North-West Cup game today. Our lads play Donegal next, up in Ballybofey next weekend.
Hopefully a few of our Under 21s do enough to earn squad places with the seniors once the Under 21 campaign finishes. While the time of year and standard of opposition must be taken into account you’d be hopeful that the likes of Duffy, Akram and Reape could be county senior standard before too long.
After a few disappointing years in terms of bringing through youth between 2012 and 2014 it’s promising to see the emergence of Diarmuid O’Connor, Patrick Durcan and potentially Conor O’Shea hopefully being followed up by another crop of quality Under 21s coming through behind them.
u21 ‘s have 2 from 2 and thats best start possible. great for moral. More work at this level is extremely important. proper management and regime would bring these guys on. Not running them into the ground with all sorts of commitments, let them develop naturally. Fionan duffy seems to be a name that crops up alot recently. great to see talent coming through.
Well done to our U21 team today. Its great to see some of the lads up front keeping up their scoring rates! Below are the minor teams who played for us in the 2013 All-Ireland final and in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, so it just shows that there is still a lot of other talented players available to this year’s U21 team.
2013 All-Ireland Minor Winners…
Mayo: M Mulligan, E Doran, S Cunniffe, D Kenny, M Hall, S Coen, S Conlon, V Roughneen, D O’Connor, C Loftus (0-03, 1f), M Plunkett, P Prendergast, D Doherty (1-02), L Irwin (0-04, 4f), T Conroy (1-02).
Subs: C Byrne for Doherty, H Cafferty for Plunkett
2014 All-Ireland Minor Semi-Finalist…
Mayo: M Flanagan, C Kilkenny, S Cunniffe, E O’Donoghue; J Forkan, B Duffy, S Conlon; G Walsh, M Ruane, G Boylan (0-04, 3f), C Hanley (0-01), S Akram, F Duffy (0-01), TJ Byrne (2-00), B Reape (0-01).
Subs: L Byrne for Hanley, S Brennan for C Kilkenny (black card), D Clarke for J Forkan, K Hopkins for M Ruane, J Reilly for F Duffy, D Cannon for S Conlon
On paper this looks like a strong setu..I have see a few of these players with their club teams and I have been very impressed Not all those guys listed play first team football with their club thought, and It shows when they come up against lads from other counties. Add in the not listed names of Byrne, Kenny, Hall, Coen, Irwin, O’Connor Loftus. I am not sure if Darren McHale is still underage or not.?
HSE Thanks for the update. McHale out but I forgot some stand out players like Conlon, Prendergast and Conroy. Not sure if they are getting a regular game with their club first team ?
Surprised that Fermanagh beat Donegal who won, I think at least one Ulster at minor level in the past three years. Of course it may have been a weakened Donegal team. They have, I think, called up a number of young players to their senior panel and they may not have been in action today.
I am looking forward to a visit to Ballybofey where I previously spent some time.
There appears to be real potential in this Mayo team when you consider that none of the “big guns” have appeared yet.
Your welcome PJ, yeah it’ll be interesting to see as the year goes on who will be available at this level and who won’t be. We should have the makings of a very strong team anyway. With the 2013 players winning the All-Ireland Minor title, its a chance for these players to build on that winning mentality this year at the U-21 grade, something which cannot be underestimated.
Tommy Conroy was playing for Kiltane last year. It’s going to be one of the tightest teams to make the Mayo u21 if everyone is back fit.
As a potential team you have many different styles of players to choose from.
All of them good players in their own right. We’ve seen a lot of Mayo u21 teams where its been two or three really stood out from the rest. This team can have quality in every line.
Still a bit concerned with midfield. They might struggle with a lad who is closing in on division one senior standard in that position. No one really set the club scene alight there.
Well done to the squad and management. It’s early days but there is a feeling in me that a few of these bucks will be big names in the near future. Duffy, in particular, is a fella that like aos has the physical power to be very dangerous if left marked by a single player. What would Dublin do if they had to double mark him along with aos? If these mayo players coming up can be tuned in to different methods of play, anything is possible. Dublin have massive dept but Mayo seem to have a bit too.
Akram impressed at minor level in 2014 and should he play his cards right may play himself on to the seniors team within the next few years.
See j gibbons starting great Steve giving players a chance what’s weather like is it c bar or ballin a
Very impressive by the u21’s. Mayo full back line very strong with Ciaran Harrison being very impressive in corner back. They have great attacking ability from the half back line through Jason Forkan and Akram. The forwards are strong with the hard working Fergal Boland and the scoring power of Duffy. Looks like it will be a good year for the mayo under21’s.