Comfort and concern for Mayo and Armagh in chaotic contest
27 February 2022; Connaire Mackin of Armagh in action against Jordan Flynn of Mayo during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Mayo and Armagh at Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
This was drama at its finest. Two teams going at it hell for leather, a passionate crowd threatening to lift the roof off the stand and nothing decided until the fifth minute of injury time. This was league football at its chaotic, brilliant best.
Afterwards, both managers found it hard to put words on their emotions. The victor, James Horan, delighted with the win and disappointed with a lot of his team’s play – the vanquished, Kieran McGeeney, lost for words about some of the unforced errors from his players in the final, frantic finale.
“We just gave them the ball. We were under no pressure at all and we turned the ball over to them time and time again. We handpassed it to them and we kicked it to them,” the Armagh boss told the assembled media after his team were overhauled by the Mayo men in the closing minutes.
Horan was a little happier – but not much. “It was a dramatic win in the end and we’re delighted, but it’s not the way we’d want to win. We’re very happy with the way we kept grinding at the end to win it but we’re disappointed with a lot of what we did today. That might sound counter-intuitive, but we have a lot to work on.
“We were very slow to move the ball in the first half. We played into their hands and struggled to get shots off. We played with more energy and movement in the second half and some of the subs who came on made a huge difference so we were getting stronger as the game went on and that counted in the end.”
How right he was! Armagh started explosively and were two points up at half time despite playing with the gale-force breeze in their faces, but Horan ran the bench and with men such as Aidan O’Shea and Pádraig O’Hora joining earlier additions Paddy Durcan and Kevin McLoughlin, that power proved decisive.
Armagh were kicking themselves afterwards. They took the lead after just nine seconds and were never headed for the following 69 minutes, but Mayo are never beaten until the final whistle and they powered home in injury time.
In truth, the Mayo supporters were co-conspirators, they cracked the heavens in the closing stages and the previously-calm Armagh men began to treat the ball like a grenade with the pin removed.
They couldn’t wait to get rid of it and Mayo gobbled it up. Lessons will be learned by McGeeney’s men and when the dust settles they will take a lot from this epic battle.
The Ulster men hit the front straight from the throw-in. Mayo goalkeeper Rob Hennelly had been injured in the warm-up and his replacement Rory Byrne was picking the ball out of the net before another Mayo man touched it. The scorer, Ciaran Mackin, could hardly believe his luck but it was exactly the start Armagh were hoping for.
They powered forward into the breeze and were five points clear after ten minutes. Rian O’Neill was popping up all over the pitch, Stefan Campbell was causing trouble at wing-forward and Mayo were finding scores hard to come by.
“We were being sucked into positions we shouldn’t have been in,” Horan said afterwards. “It took time to figure it out.”
The Mayo manager was adventurous on the line – realising that full-back Rory Brickendon was being dragged into the opposition half by Rian O’Neill he introduced the more attack-minded Paddy Durcan and the switch paid dividends.
Lee Keegan was excellent at the back for Mayo and the green and red began to find more avenues to goal. However, Armagh were still in front at half time, 1-5 to 0-6, thanks in part to a sublime long-range pointed free from O’Neill.
Mayo introduced O’Shea and O’Hora at half-time and moved Oisín Mullin to full back. That gave them a foundation on which to build a comeback and they set off in chase of the leaders. The excellent Aiden Orme and Diarmuid O’Connor closed the gap to just one after 40 minutes but Armagh were on a mission and when O’Neill landed another stunner from the sideline at the start of the final quarter they were 1-8 to 0-9 clear and looking good.
McLoughlin danced through to half the deficit but the guests were on the cusp of victory when Aidan Nugent kicked two in a row to put three between them after 65 minutes.
Mayo needed a goal – or so we thought. Once again, they proved us wrong. Two pointed frees from Ryan O’Donoghue and a beauty from the right wing from Durcan levelled it and Jordan Flynn kicked them in front in the 70th minute.
The Mayo supporters were in overdrive at that stage and Armagh seemed to be spooked. They had a handful of chances to kick a balancing score but lost the ball cheaply and when the Connacht men broke out for Durcan to put two between them after 75 minutes the place went crazy.
Drama at its finest once again from Mayo and as McGeeney told the assembled press afterwards – “One that got away.”
R O’Donoghue (0-7, 5f, 1m), D O’Connor, P Durcan (0-2 each); J Flynn (0-1), M Ruane, A Orme (free), K McLoughlin (0-1 each)
R O’Neill (0-3, 2f); C Mackin (1-0), R Grugan (1 free), A Nugent (0-2 each), S Campbell, C Turbit, J Duffy (0-1 each)
R Byrne; L Keegan, R Brickendon, M Plunkett; O Mullin, S Coen, S Callinan; J Flynn, M Ruane; F McDonagh, D O’Connor, C Loftus; A Orme, F Irwin, R O’Donoghue
K McLoughlin for Irwin, P Durcan for Brickendon, A O’Shea for Loftus, P O’Hora for Callinan, J Carney for McDonagh, F Boland for McLoughlin
E Rafferty; P Burns, A Forker, A McKay; C Mackin, N Rowland, J Óg Burns; C Mackin, B Crealey; S Campbell, R Grugan, T Kelly; J Duffy, R O’Neill, A Nugent
C Turbitt for Duffy, J Morgan for McKay, S Sheridan for Crealey, O O’Neill for Rowland, C Higgins for Forker
D Coldrick (Meath)
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