‘Job done’ as Aidan O’Shea and Mayo swat sorry Sligo aside

Sligo manager Tony McEntee had made five late changes to his line-up before the throw-in but the home side were unable to pose any significant problems for the rampant visitors.

DAZZLER: Darren McHale of Mayo fends off Sligo's Karl McKenna during the Connacht SFC quarter-final at Markievicz Park in Sligo. 

Connacht SFC: Sligo 0-12 Mayo 3-23.

Two teams, heading in very different directions, passed like ships in the night on Saturday at Markievicz Park.

Sligo’s stay in the Connacht Championship was short-lived again while Mayo marched on relentlessly into the semi-finals without breaking much of a sweat.

It really was that straightforward for the defending champions who put this one-sided game to bed in the early stages, had it wrapped up by half-time, and freewheeled to victory.

In the process, they delivered a loud and clear statement of intent to their semi-final opponents, Leitrim, and all the other Connacht title contenders.

Even without the injured O’Connor brothers, Mayo brought their customary pace, power, and intensity to the party. They pressed high on Sligo from the start, hassled and harried them into mistakes and turnovers, and hit three first-half goals to settle the debate.

Two of them came from team captain Aidan O’Shea, who marked his 70th championship appearance with a man-of-the-match display and 2-2 from open play.

Darren McHale, who was starting his first championship game, raised the other green flag when he netted from close range after Sligo goalkeeper Eamonn Kilgannon, had parried Tommy Conroy’s stinging goalbound effort.

McHale filled his boots in the open spaces, nailing 1-5 from open play, and showing many of the touches that made him one of the key men in Knockmore’s county-title winning season.

But it was O’Shea, who turns 31 tomorrow, who set the tone.

“We’re happy enough, we got the job done, we’re moving on now,” he said. “We played well in the first 20 minutes, we’ve a few things to improve on, and we’ll build on that now for Leitrim.”

ELUSIVE: Enda Hession of Mayo evades the challenge of Sligo's Barry Gorman. Picture: James Crombie, Inpho

Sligo were powerless to prevent the holders racing into a 14 points lead by half-time.

By that stage Mayo had 3-13 on the board (3-11 from open play and 2-6 from turnovers), while the home side had worked hard to mine 0-8.

Sligo manager Tony McEntee had made three substitutions by the interval, but the damage had been done by then. The former Mayo selector had also tried to throw Mayo by making five changes to his starting line-up before the throw-in, but none of it made any difference.

Sligo looked and played like a team that had come into this knock-out game on the back of a disappointing Division 4 league campaign which culminated in three successive defeats.

That had knocked their confidence and not playing a championship match last year didn’t help their cause either.

The Yeats County were behind here from the fifth minute and just couldn’t cope with the relentlessness of Mayo’s hard-running and attack-minded outlook.

James Horan believes in attack being the best form of defence and his players took that to the limit here, attacking in waves and shooting on sight.

Sligo were reduced to rare moments of individual highlights with the excellent Niall Murphy leading the way, shooting six points and rattling Rob Hennelly’s crossbar in the opening half.

The team that McEntee is trying to build enjoyed their best spell of the match either side of half-time, landing four points from Seán Carrabine, Keelan Cawley, Paddy O’Connor, and Mikey Gordon to give the 100 Sligo supporters in the ground something to smile about.

However, it was only a temporary respite from the Mayo onslaught as some replacements arrived to up the ante and seven points without reply between the 50th and 66th minutes from Conor Loftus (two), Eoghan McLaughlin (two), Ryan O’Donoghue, Fergal Boland and Stephen Coen glossed the final scoreline.

The result means that Sligo have now only beaten Mayo twice since their famous Connacht final success in 1975, and those ambushes in 2000 and 2010 seem like distant memories.

Mayo, meanwhile, seem intent on making some more new ones.

MAYO: R Hennelly; E Hession, O Mullin, L Keegan; P Durcan (0-1), M Plunkett, E McLaughlin (0-2); M Ruane, C Loftus (0-2); K McLoughlin, D McHale (1-5), J Flynn (0-1); T Conroy (0-2), A O’Shea (2-2), R O’Donoghue (0-5, 4fs).

Subs used: F Boland (0-1) for Flynn (47); P O’Hora for Keegan (54); S Coen (0-1) for Durcan (59); P Towey for O’Donoghue (62); J Carr (0-1) for McLoughlin (70).

SLIGO: E Kilgannon; K McKenna, E McGuinness, R Feehily; P McNamara, P Laffey, N Mullen; D Quinn, P Kilcoyne; L Gaughan (0-1), M Gordon (0-1), P O’Connor (0-1); N Murphy (0-6, 1f), B Gorman, S Carrabine (0-2).

Subs used: E Lyons for McKenna (31); K Cawley (0-1) for Gaughan (31); R Óg Murphy for Gorman (37); C Griffin for Gordon (54); C Lally for Cawley (60).

Referee: P Falloon (Down)