Mayo were expected to turn up and turn over Leitrim with a minimum of fuss in today’s Connacht SFC semi-final at Páirc Seán MacDiarmada. That wasn’t a script the home team were happy to chime in with, however, and, combined with an alarmingly lacklustre performances from our lads, we ended up with what was for the most part a very competitive encounter, which we eventually won by seven points.
It was on a dank day in November in 2020, when Covid’s grip was so tight that games were being played behind closed doors, that we last played Leitrim in the Championship in Carrick-on-Shannon. With rain spilling down across the country for the last 36 hours and temperatures struggling to get into the low double-digits, you could be forgiven for thinking today was one borrowed from the depths of winter.
The shiny new pitch at Páirc Seán MacDiarmada was looking its best, despite the poor conditions, and Leitrim did their new playing surface proud, as they took the fight gamely to the visitors for the full seventy minutes.
So it’s only right at the outset to acknowledge the brave performance of this young, inexperienced Leitrim team, four of whom made their Championship debuts today and the bulk of whom have very limited inter-county experience. They gave our lads a bellyful of it today and they can be rightly proud of the jarring rattle they gave us this afternoon.
From our perspective, though, the post-mortem will be far more negative. We were listless and lacking in inventiveness for long stretches, once again we completely refused to kick the ball in – on a day when the wet conditions made the ball like the proverbial bar of soap, which made running it through the hands so difficult – and we never got a single shot on goal. Plus we never really looked like getting a two-pointer either, while Barry McNulty was kicking them for fun for Leitrim.
It was those two two-point frees that the big midfielder boomed over the bar into the town end goal that kept Leitrim’s challenge purring along in the first half. The first one put them ahead briefly by two points on eight minutes and his second one edged them back in front ten minutes later.
Matthew Ruane stroked the ball languidly over the bar in the opening minute to get us off the mark. But when Ryan O’Donoghue opened his account from a free on nine minutes – the Belmullet player would go on to score nine points in an outstanding display – it then took one from Aidan O’Shea, from a mark after which he’d skied his first effort after catching the ball badly wide, to get us level.
Leitrim had already set out their stall as sticky opponents. Points from Darren McHale and Jack Carney, the latter one set up by a superb touch pass from Ryan O’Donoghue (who’d earler nabbed his first from play), put us back in front.
A McNulty free – he’d end the day on eight points and was, by any measure, the best player on the field today – levelled before a Colm Reape ’45 and a Ryan O’Donoghue free nudged us two clear. They pulled one back, via the lively Darren Cox, to leave just one between the teams at the break.
We made a triple substitution at half-time. Off went Sam Callinan, Mattie Ruane and Davitt Neary while on came Diarmuid O’Connor, Shairoze Akram and Eoghan McLaughlin.
Ryan O’Donoghue, from play, got us going straight away but McNulty hit back in kind for them. Then Jordan Flynn clipped over a nice score before McNulty was fouled while leaping high to claim primary possession, the ball was brought up and O’Rourke tapped over the resultant free.
Points from play were then swapped. Ryan (inevitably) got ours, Prior got theirs.
As the game went into the final quarter we finally began to extend our lead. Ryan landed a free from way out on the left and then Stephen Coen got the ball in a good position close in and fired it over to put us three clear. This was, incredibly, the biggest lead we’d had on them up till then.
Soon we’d doubled that lead. Another free from Ryan was followed by one from Paul Towey (on for Darren McHale) after Dylan Thornton had claimed the Leitrim restart and then Jack Carney, with Towey this time the provider, sent us six clear.
Any hopes of our cantering on from there to an easy win were jolted soon after as McNulty landed his third two-pointer. This one came from play after they’d gone short with a ’45 and worked the scoring chance that their midfielder delivered on with aplomb.
We scored – a nice one from Paul Towey – and they scored (Prior) and then we scored again, this time from the boot of Jordan Flynn. When McNulty came up short with his attempt to land a fourth two-pointer (from a free wide out on the right) with ten minutes to go, it finally began to look like we would indeed win this one.
We closed out the scoring with a brace of points from Ryan, the first from a free and the second from play. It was the Belmullet man who had the ball in the final seconds and he held onto it, ambling across the field towards the covered terrace over which he booted the ball once the hooter had sounded.
This brought to an end what was by any measure an unconvincing performance from our lads. We left Carrick today with a win but we did so after a display that certainly won’t live long in the memory.
It is, though, a win that sends us forward to this year’s Connacht final, the first Nestor Cup decider we’re getting to contest in Castlebar in over a decade. If that doesn’t spur an improved showing from us then it’s hard to think what will.
Mayo: Colm Reape (0-1, ’45); Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh, Enda Hession; Sam Callinan, David McBrien, Stephen Coen (0-1); Jack Carney (0-2), Matthew Ruane (0-1); Davitt Neary, Darren McHale (0-1), Jordan Flynn (0-2); Aidan O’Shea (0-1, mark), Dylan Thornton, Ryan O’Donoghue (0-9, five frees). Subs: Diarmuid O’Connor for Callinan, Shairoze Akram for Ruane, Eoghan McLaughlin for Neary, Paul Towey (0-2) for McHale, Frank Irwin for Coen.
Who was our Player of the Match against Leitrim? Pick your top three performers
- Ryan O'Donoghue (37%, 519 Votes)
- Jordan Flynn (9%, 128 Votes)
- Diarmuid O'Connor (8%, 117 Votes)
- Paul Towey (7%, 95 Votes)
- Jack Carney (6%, 81 Votes)
- Enda Hession (5%, 74 Votes)
- Dylan Thornton (4%, 62 Votes)
- Aidan O'Shea (4%, 58 Votes)
- Donnacha McHugh (4%, 51 Votes)
- Shairoze Akram (3%, 39 Votes)
- Stephen Coen (2%, 27 Votes)
- Colm Reape (2%, 24 Votes)
- Darren McHale (2%, 23 Votes)
- Jack Coyne (1%, 21 Votes)
- David McBrien (1%, 20 Votes)
- Matthew Ruane (1%, 18 Votes)
- Frank Irwin (1%, 18 Votes)
- Eoghan McLaughlin (1%, 14 Votes)
- Davitt Neary (1%, 10 Votes)
- Sam Callinan (0%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 710
highorlow says:
April 19, 2025 at 8:28 pm
Great result away from home
Pebblesmeller says:
April 19, 2025 at 9:19 pm
I appreciate your report is hot off the press after the final whistle but I think you're being very, very kind and gentle to our players. That performance, by any measure, coming after 7 league games, a league final and 1st rd of the championship already in the bag, was as clueless, listless, aimless, timid, meek and lacklustre a performance I can remember in a long, long time. Huge, huge questions hang over this management, their squad selections, their tactics, the regression of many of our players and their deteriorating skills set.
Galway or Roscommon would rip us a new one, and keep ripping it, had they been our opponents today. Today was our full strength starting 15 and never created a goal chance, scored only 4 pts from play in the first half, and more critically than any of that, were physically bullied out there today.
The Sligo performance was bad but this was putrid.
Corick bridget says:
April 19, 2025 at 9:24 pm
Up Mayo
Craggy boglands says:
April 19, 2025 at 9:31 pm
Pebblesmeller. That's a very fair assessment ?. Listening to commentary. Oh its very hard for mayo to get up for a match like this... sorry but Dublin have been doing this in leinster for donkey s years. Ryan o Donohoe is carrying us on his shoulders. We are in a connaught final just about. Let s see what happens
Culmore says:
April 19, 2025 at 10:17 pm
Just voted for Ryan for man of match, didn't think anyone else deserved a vote.
Hombregrande says:
April 19, 2025 at 10:22 pm
Pepplesmeller..
You express what any astute and knowledge supporter of gaelic football would privately feel if not publicly state. ...
It was embarrassing!
mayomagic says:
April 19, 2025 at 10:27 pm
Margin was flattering. No real goal chance created just 3 or 4 wides was it? Leitrim had the double the wides and one of their points and wides could have been goals.
Horans hat says:
April 19, 2025 at 10:29 pm
After today I think the mayo fan base is split 50/50 into two distinct groups.
1.Has come to terms with where we are in the pecking order.We are miles off it with a management team that dosent have a clue.
2.Believes that Kevin and Co are playing the greatest game of poker we will ever see.
I hope he's playing poker but I doubt it.
The connaught final will reveal all
Young Fella says:
April 19, 2025 at 10:38 pm
I just watched McNultys ‘challenge’ on Davitt Neary in the first minute on GAA+. It’s a red card all day long. Of course Cullen (who was right beside it) hasn’t the balls to make the correct call. Such a coward of a ref.
highorlow says:
April 19, 2025 at 11:02 pm
For folk here old enough to remember, anytime we leave Carrick after a performance like that we go places.
WJ probably has the stats here on this site.
Willie Joe says:
April 19, 2025 at 11:15 pm
Indeed, highorlow - we escaped from Páirc Seán by the skin of our teeth in 2006 (with just a point to spare) and made it all the way to the All-Ireland final. As I pointed out in the pre-match piece the other day, every time we've played Leitrim in Connacht this century we've ended up in the All-Ireland. Does that have any relevance for this year? No, I don't think so either!
Pacar says:
April 19, 2025 at 11:32 pm
Aidan at ff with his man on a yellow card for 40 minute's and not one ball in on top of him,why is he there??.If they are not going to put it in to him then why not bring him to midfield where we couldn't win a ball or a break.We got totally cleaned in midfield and most other positions today.We cannot even win the second ball.God help us if anything happens RO'D.Even after losing the game the Leitrim supporters were delighted with the effort their lad's put in,a panel that has 19 player's aged 19 or younger.It wasn't that we had a good spell today and pulled away from them,more a case that they tired but their an up and coming team who will cause us problem's again.
to win just once says:
April 20, 2025 at 12:23 am
While it is a semi final and semi finals are for winning there is no doubt that we are an average team at best. Some people still delude themselves that we have a chance as there is no outstanding team this year. Fair enough but we are well behind the better teams. As I have said for quite a while now, how many of this present team would get into Mayo 2012- 2017. Ryan O Donaghue and Aiden ( who was on that team anyway) No one else. That is not to say that we are absolutely no hopers in a Connacht final. It will be against huge rivals and on a given day we can beat a better team. But we won’t beat 3 or 4 better teams on 3 or 4 given days because we are simply not good enough. We don’t seem to have discovered any new player who will give us a serious lift. We have no maurading half backs who used to score heavily for us in the good old days and without Ryan we would be even more mediocre than we are already. It’s quite easy to blame management and in truth they don’t look very convincing but we can’t kick 2 pointers, are creating few goal chances and have looked lethargic and limited all year. Last year we could claim to be unlucky as Galway, Dublin and Derry all hit last kick scores which hurt us. I don’t see us taking many good teams to the last minute this summer. Throw off the shackles and go for broke. Cork got beat by Kerry tonight but they died with their boots on, Fermanagh pushed Down all the way and Tipperary gave Clare a rattle. One final point, Leitrim deserve credit for their brave performance. They have had one hell of a brutal year but they restored lots of pride today.
Catcol says:
April 20, 2025 at 12:51 am
Yes, I think it’s right to mention the 2006 match. It really was in the melting pot until the final whistle. Ciaran Mac was special that day. Leitrim were laying siege to our goal towards the end, he was defending, got the ball, took it the length of the field, taking hits from four or five Leitrim lads along the way (sounds familiar?), before hitting it wide. But at that stage a wide was as good as a score.
dreamysleepynightysnoozysnooze says:
April 20, 2025 at 6:29 am
How many years now are we saying "we got cleaned at midfield"? Major weak point of the squad and you won't win any important games without the right personnel here.
The Umpire says:
April 20, 2025 at 8:38 am
If Mayo are not playing according to the coaches' instructions, I think its time to change the coaches. If they are playing according to the coaches' instructions, then it's time to change the coaches.
Mayomaningalway says:
April 20, 2025 at 8:47 am
I came here this morning to see if others felt the same as I do . Wow that a very poor performance. More than that it is so frustrating to watch .No disrespect to Leitrim but we should not be getting turned over that much . For having 4 or 5 midfielders on the pitch we still did not dominate the middle third either against Sligo or Leitrim . If we can’t dominate midfield against Leitrim or Sligo we could be in trouble against Galway/Roscommon . But the question that is really annoying me is why aren’t we kicking the ball more ? Can anyone explain that to me ? Surely we have seen enough to see that teams who kick pass in these new rules get rewarded .
Ever the optimist says:
April 20, 2025 at 10:28 am
I'm feeling a little more content that I couldn't travel now as some of the reports make for grim reading altogether. There are several factors in making it all the way to the grand prize, and luck plays a huge role in it . My wife has been bemoaning Dublin's performance against Wicklow just as assuredly as many on here have Mayo's. There' are still too many factors in the equation as it stands lads. I'm not for budging on either Donegal or another from Ulster winning it outright, with Galway being the obvious outsider with a fighting chance.
Shuffly Deck says:
April 20, 2025 at 10:56 am
I wouldn’t be as negative as some here. My summary of mitigating factors :
1) Leitrim gave a good account of themselves protecting the D being all important. Also 3 of their players gave us trouble, McNulty who was superb and the 2 corner forwards.
2) The weather really helped Leitrim with that defensive approach as several times Mayo players rightly IMO refused to shoot.
3) The ye’ll bate them handy permeated through to the performance.
4) The ref giving away frees for next to nothing. At least 3 perfectly executed tackles from Eoghan Mac and Enda H resulted in frees. Couldn’t see any evidence of foul play for any of them.
I saw a few positives
1) ROD excellent.
2) Paul Towey who has to play the next day. He’s getting more and more clever at making space to shoot. Confidence high.
3) Eoghan Mac’s ability to create turnovers. Any time someone got past him was like a terrier who won’t let go of someone’s ankle. I’ve swayed back and over on him being in the team but big turnovers can win games and he’s one the best in any team at that.
4) Diarmaid getting game time. Nothing special but kept us turning over better than 1st half.
Shuffly Deck says:
April 20, 2025 at 10:56 am
& Negatives
1) Kickouts,. Midfield is also inconsistent. Not helped management not having a good bag of kickout strategies for when teams go after our us. Reape can’t spot as many of those clever ones that Cluxton Morgan Beggan and a few other top goalies can so hand signals and clever strategies need to be devised. How seldom do Mayo drive one over the top. Donegal and Tyrone us it when needed.
2) Lack of long balls in, Kerry will go far this year. Leitrim had a few goal chances from quick moves but altitude sickness got them. Our U20s looked good at fast ball in the other night. We know how useful it is. I contradict some her in that some ball did go in to AOS but didn’t stick because of the weather and double marking. Aido kept plugging on an day when not much was going well for him.
3) Rookies weren’t great. I think we need to go back to DOC instead of Neary and Thornton and Irwin got more game time on the ball but I wouldn’t be starting any of them vs Galway. We’ll need almost all the experienced players on the pitch to beat today’s winners who I expect will be Galway.
I don’t expect anywhere near as bad the next day but will (if Galway)be long odds to win. Ros would be 50 50 if we step up.
Jimbo says:
April 20, 2025 at 11:43 am
I am happy we are back in connacht final by not playing great. There are an awful lot of negative and pessimistic mayo supporters on the blog and in the pubs and on the street. We supporters need to get positive about our team and stop ridiculing our team and players they survived in division 1 and are now in connacht final in castlebar. I read on the blog during the week that a mayo club team would beat leitrim. Hopefully every mayo supporter will be very vocal at the connacht final. Mayo can do it.
Mayonaze says:
April 20, 2025 at 1:19 pm
This is what’s going to happen. Mayo will put in a performance good enough to win the Connacht Final. Management will make out like it’s a serious achievements and lots of people will be fooled by it. Then we’ll revert to lateralball and get knocked out in a QF and some will try to convince us that it’s been a progressive year.
The only half decent football we’ve played this year was a 2nd half when we hanging off the precipice in Armagh. Against Kerry (albeit they were quite under strength) and against Derry who were the whipping boys of Div1. We were very mediocre against Dgal. Extremely average against Sligo and same yesterday. Mayo should have gone up to Carrick and laid down a marker. Not one goal chance created is pathetic.
Our best performance of the season will be in a few weeks and it’ll peter out after that. I’ll be very pleased if I’m proven wrong on that.
Over the past two seasons, our team selections, substitutions and strategy has been immensely baffling. The team lacks energy and belief.
Castle 51 says:
April 20, 2025 at 1:23 pm
While I feel yesterday's performance was very poor it is my opinion that supporters should wait until the championship is over to pass judgement on the management team .there were similar negativity towards the management team after the first 2 games in the league and than we see a big turnaround in performance.
A certain trend is emerging with the new rules and the so called weaker sides are more competitive and that's reflected in the losing margins.
Mayo have a lot of work to do before the connacht final which will be a totally different game because they will face a division 1 opponent.
For what it's worth I'm going for roscommon to beat galway in today's game.
BatetheBlanket says:
April 20, 2025 at 2:04 pm
@Mayonaze I think you are right, there must be something not right somewhere in the whole setup.
I always look for a bounce in a team when management come in for the year, and a better bounce in the Second year and you would expect more progression in the 3rd year.
We know the guys out on long term injury are really badly missed.
There are always signs for me as to where we are really at, but hopefully there will be a continuous bounce starting from the Connaught final, win or lose I'm just looking for a good performance.