Mighty Mayo pulverise dismal Dubs

The sight of Mayo supporters lining up to take photographs of the scoreboard at the end of this remarkable league match last Saturday evening told its own story.

They had just watched their team produce an incredibly complete performance to trounce the All-Ireland champions by 12 points and propel themselves back into frame for a place in the Division 1 semi-finals.

Defeat here would have consigned Mayo to a scrap for survival in the final round; now they go to Kerry next Sunday knowing victory will guarantee them a slot in the play-offs.

In contrast, it was an evening to forget for Pat Gilroy, his team, and the small band of Dublin supporters among the sun-splashed crowd of 10,153.

The boys in blue were terrible from beginning to end, blown away by Mayo’s intensity and appetite for destruction. They also finished the game with only 13 men after substitute Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly were both dismissed in the second half.

Afterwards, Pat Gilroy was understandably critical of his team’s lacklustre display, which leaves them needing to beat Cork next Sunday to have any chance of making the knockout stages.

“Nobody in there could have seen that coming,” he sighed. “As a group we need to look at the reasons why that happened. We clearly have to eliminate it.

“We never got near the pitch of that game at all. From start to finish there was only one team in it. Our application just wasn’t anywhere near where it should be, simple as that.

“We know the kind of team we are but we’re only good as a team and we just didn’t bring that to it at all tonight.”

Across the corridor, James Horan was reflecting on his team’s first win in four attempts and refused to get carried away with the performance or the result.

“We were looking for a performance from this game and thankfully we got it,” said the Mayo manager. “We played well, we played some really good stuff. I’m delighted with the win. We’ll take it, move on, train on Tuesday, and get ready for Kerry next weekend.”

The story of the game itself is fairly straightforward.

Mayo established their dominance from the get-go with Donal Vaughan, Aidan O’Shea, Danny Geraghty and Andy Moran controlling the midfield.

Dublin were noticeably lethargic from the early stages and with Mayo passing and moving with pace and precision, the scores started to clock up quickly.

Michael Conroy got the show on the road with two rapid-fire points in the opening minutes and Mayo added 11 more scores (nine from open play) before the short whistle.

The impressive Conor Mortimer nailed five of those points, his third made him Mayo’s leading scorer of all-time.

Alan Dillon also tossed over three scores with typical style while the imposing Aidan O’Shea hit the target from long-range as Dublin struggled to keep up.

Two Bryan Cullen points, one from Paddy Andrews, and a couple of frees by Mossy Quinn was the sum total of the visitor’s first half contribution to the scoreboard as they struggled to break down Mayo’s tight-marking and disciplined defence.

Ahead by 0-13 to 0-5, and turning to face into the breeze, the Westerners set about putting the game to bed from the restart.

The dynamic Donal Vaughan galloped through in the opening seconds to fist over an inspirational score and the outcome was inevitable from there to the finish.

The evening went from bad to worse for Dublin when Paul Flynn was red-carded by referee, Michael Duffy, in the 40th minute for elbowing Colm Boyle on the ground.

Diarmuid Connolly was sent for an early shower on 59 minutes after picking up his second yellow card. Dublin managed just one point in the last 25 minutes, from substitute Dean Rock, and Mayo freewheeled to victory.

“After a performance like that you need to be excited and enjoy it,” remarked James Horan.

Pat Gilroy said: “We have to regroup, sit down on Tuesday night, and sort out a lot of things.”

How right they both were.

Scorers for Mayo: C Mortimer 0-8 (5fs), M Conroy, A Dillon 0-4 each, D Vaughan 0-2, B Moran, A O’Shea 0-1 each.

Scorers for Dublin: T Quinn (2fs), B Cullen 0-2 each, P Andrews, G Brennan, D Connolly (1f), D Rock 0-1 each.

Subs for Mayo: J Doherty for Moran (58), P Gardiner for Vaughan (58), C O’Connor for Conroy (64 mins), A Campbell for Dillon (66), J Gibbons for Geraghty (66).

Subs for Dublin: P Flynn for Brogan (25), C Dias for McCarthy (ht), E Fennell for McConnell (ht), D Kelly for Quinn (45), D Rock for Andrews (53).

Referee: Michael Duffy (Sligo).