Late Boland point clinches dramatic win for Mayo over Dublin
Fergal Boland of Mayo celebrates kicking his side's winning point against Dublin at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The latest renewal of these great rivals went all the way to the wire before Fergal Boland popped up to shoot the winning score four minutes into added time at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar.
Boland’s neat effort — after a quick free from Ryan O’Donoghue — gave the league champions a first home win over the All-Ireland champions for 12 years.
It also means that Dublin are still chasing a first win of the campaign heading into round three in a fortnight’s time.
The sides had been deadlocked five minutes in front of a crowd of 14,789 patrons during a game that hung in the balance from the moment that Mayo substitute Stephen Coen fisted in the first goal of his senior career in the 52nd minute to put the Westerners in front.
The sides had been all square at the interval, but Dublin hit the ground running at the start of the second half to race three points ahead after scores from goalkeeper David O’Hanlon (free), Paddy Small (free) and Cormac Costello.
But Coen’s goal from close-range, after Jordan Flynn’s effort for a point had dropped short, threw Mayo a lifeline when they seemed to be struggling.
Kevin McStay’s team were still a point ahead swinging into the home straight, but Dublin continued to engineer scoring chances and, while some were spurned, Cian Murphy and Con O’Callaghan did raise white flags that edged the Metropolitans ahead after 62 minutes.
Remarkably though, Dessie Farrell’s men failed to score for the final 12 minutes as Mayo upped the ante in an effort to stop a run of four successive home defeats to the Dubs.
Kevin McStay had introduced Tommy Conroy and Cillian O’Connor into the Mayo attack in the closing stages, and the duo made telling impacts.
A seventh point of the evening from Ryan O’Donoghue (six from frees) levelled the match in the 64th minute and ten action-packed minutes followed as both sides chased a winner.
There were misses at both ends as a first draw between the sides in this competition since 2014 loomed large.
But Mayo had other ideas and O’Donoghue’s quick-thinking from a free wide on the right created the chance for Fergal Boland to steal the headlines and maintain Mayo’s unbeaten start to this campaign.
The sides were level at 0-8 apiece after a frantic first half.
Such a scenario had seemed highly unlikely after 20 minutes as Dublin completely dominated the opening 20 minutes and deservedly led by 0-6 to 0-2.
The usual suspects like Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Seán Bugler, Ciarán Kilkenny and Con O’Callaghan were pulling the strings, and the scores flowed easily.
Fenton, O’Callaghan, McCaffrey and Cormac Costello (two frees) were all on target in the first quarter as Dessie Farrell’s team dictated the pace and the tempo.
But the homeside gradually got to grips with Dublin’s approach and five points in eight minutes gave the home crowd something to shout about.
Goalkeeper Colm Reape got the ball rolling with a sweetly-struck ‘45 before Ryan O’Donoghue clipped two frees in a row and Paul Towey fired over a magnificent long-range effort in the 26th minute.
Bob Tuohy then claimed a nice delivery from Paul Towey before swinging over the equaliser from a tight angle a minute later.
Dublin responded with a brace of fine scores from Seán Bugler popped up in space to land a couple of superb scores before Ryan O’Donoghue drilled a brilliant point off the outside of his right foot and then converted a free to tie the game up again.
That meant there was no separating the teams at the interval, and the outcome hung in the balance all through an eventful second half.
C Reape (0-1, ‘45); J Coyne, R Brickenden, S Callinan; P Durcan, D McBrien, E McLaughlin; J Flynn, J Carney (0-1); B Tuohy (0-1), F Boland (0-1), C Reid; A O’Shea, P Towey (0-1), R O’Donoghue (0-7, 6fs).
Subs used: D McHugh for Reid (10); S Coen (1-0) for McLaughlin (30); T Conroy for Towey (48); C O’Connor for O’Shea (57); D Duffy for Tuohy (64);
D O’Hanlon (0-1, 1f); T Clancy, S McMahon, L Gannon; G McEneaney, C Murphy (0-1), J McCaffrey (0-2); B Fenton (0-1), S Bugler (0-2); R McGarry, C Basquel, C Kilkenny; P Small (0-1, 1f), C O’Callaghan (0-2), C Costello (0-4, 3fs).
Subs used: J Small for McCaffrey (50); N Scully for McGarry (53); P Ó Cofaigh Byrne for Basquel (57); L O’Dell for Costello (65); K O’Gara for P Small (69);
: F Kelly (Longford)
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