The county’s U20 footballers made a positive start to their Connacht Championship campaign this evening at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
The lads dominated possession for the most part against Roscommon and, but for three two-point scores in the first half by the visitors and some wild shooting by the Mayo lads, who racked up thirteen wides, the margin of victory would surely have been greater. Mayo won at the finish by 1-15 to 0-13.
On a sunny spring evening in Castlebar, Peadar Gardiner’s charges were first off the mark. Cathal Keaveney was fouled inside the first minute and Tom Lydon popped over the resultant free.
Roscommon soon showed they’d come to play ball, however, as Curran knocked over a fine two-pointer with the wind behind him on five minutes. After an exchange of points – ours coming from a second Tom Lydon free – Carthy bagged a monstrous two-pointer from a free that went sailing over the posts at the bacon factory end from well over fifty yards out.
When the same player bagged a point from play a few minutes later the young Rossies were four to the good.
Our opening score from play, notched by Luke Feeney after a rapid downfield move, was followed by a third Tom Lydon free. Our wide count was, though, already mounting, with five recorded in the opening quarter.
They pushed the lead back out to four points with a second two-point free. We were seeing loads of the ball but their more direct use of the possession they had, plus their far greater efficiency in front of the posts, saw them to the fore with ten minutes to go until half-time.
It was then that we asserted ourselves, bagging 1-4 without reply to push three ahead. A point from Niall Hurley was followed by three from play by Tom Lydon. Then Josh Carey’s goal effort came back off the crossbar where John MacMonagle was waiting to palm the ball to the net.
They notched the last point of the half but we were well worthy of the two-point lead we took into the break.
Niall Hurley got us going on the scoreboard on the restart but they then reeled off three points from play in as many minutes to draw level. The stalemate didn’t last long, however, as Luke Feeney, despite close attention but on an advantage, fired us back into the lead. This time it was a lead we wouldn’t subsequently relinquish.
A Tom Lydon free was then followed by a fisted score by Josh Carey who dispossessed the Roscommon ‘keeper as he sought to clear his lines. Dara Neary and Darragh Beirne were then introduced, replacing Cathal Keaveney and Josh Carey.
They pulled one back but we replied by way of a fisted score by Oisín Cronin. Conor McHale had a goal chance saved soon after but Darragh Beirne gobbled up the loose ball in the afters and fired over.
The game had now entered the final quarter but Roscommon had, by then, completed their scoring for the evening. Our lads would only add one further point, a late free from Tom Lydon, as our profligacy in front of the posts pushed our wide count into double digits.
The worry coming down the stretch was that we’d left them in a contest that should really have been well wrapped up at that stage. There was a nervous moment five minutes from time too, as they got clear sight of goal, but we managed to scramble it away and we were in no further danger from then on, as we eased to a five-point win.
After last year’s hugely disappointing U20 campaign, this year we’ve opened our account in a far more positive manner. This is a team with plenty of ball players and, if we could get some improvement in our shooting, they’ll be a hard team to beat.
Next up for them is a tough away game against Galway, who this evening look to be on their way to a first round win over Leitrim under the lights at Cloone. Tuam Stadium is the venue for our match against the young Tribesmen this day week, where throw-in will be 5.30pm.
Mayo: Conor Meaney; Aaron Coggins, Paul Gilmore, Eoin McGreal; Hugh O’Loughlin, John MacMonagle (1-0), Colm McHale; Oliver Armstrong, Seamus Howard; Cathal Keaveney, Niall Hurley (0-2), Oisín Cronin (0-1); Josh Carey (0-1), Luke Feeney (0-2), Tom Lydon (0-8, five frees). Subs: Darragh Beirne (0-1) for Lydon (blood) and for Carey, Dara Neary for Keaveney, Colm Lynch for Feeney, Senan Guilfoyle for Hurley.
We’ll have a Final Whistle pod on this evening’s game up on Patreon in a bit.
Mayomagic says:
March 19, 2025 at 8:21 pm
Strange game should have been further ahead but that rossies scored that goal chance on 55 minutes it would have been a one point game and a very nervy finish. Middle eight winning clean possession and breaking ball won the contest Hugh O Loughlin especially stood out in that regard. Tom Lydon had his shooting boots on unlike others.
Tommy+Joe says:
March 19, 2025 at 8:22 pm
WJ, i love the thought of Colm Meaney moving away from acting and reinventing himself as an u20 keeper for Mayo. :)
Willie Joe says:
March 19, 2025 at 8:45 pm
Good spot, Tommy Joe! I’ve corrected that now, thanks for pointing it out.
Richard says:
March 19, 2025 at 8:46 pm
I was very impressed by our physicality around the middle with Armstrong, McLoughlin and Howard.
Tommy+Joe says:
March 19, 2025 at 8:51 pm
Not at all WJ. I'm not normally so eagle eyed. I just thought it was brilliant! Fair play for the great coverage of every grade going. The blog is a credit to you.
Cp says:
March 19, 2025 at 9:28 pm
Anyone listening to GAA social pod with David coldrick will have heard this but maybe everyone that was laughing at mcstay at start of the league when he said that he thought there’d be a small bit of disecretion with the 3v3 breach(like it is now).
When one of the best refs in the country says that he was going to give 1 or 2 seconds for the player to realise maybe mcstay was right all along
Lahanman says:
March 19, 2025 at 9:31 pm
Two pointers are part of the game now WJ I guess we have to get used to their impact on the score board regardless if they are against the run of play. ....
Willie Joe says:
March 19, 2025 at 9:35 pm
Final Whistle pod from this evening's U20 match is up now on Patreon.
Ahh not again says:
March 19, 2025 at 9:38 pm
Is James Horan involved with this team, I thought he was last year
to win just once says:
March 19, 2025 at 9:40 pm
Solid enough performance this evening. Some nice scores, some great fielding and of course some bad shooting but as was mentioned earlier it’s better to shoot and miss than just go laterally back and over the field. Big win for Galway as well with their usual batch of 2 pointers. Leitrim saving their u 20 players at the weekend so they could play tonight will be disappointed with result. Finally fair play to TG 4 for giving us the chance to see game and of course to WJ as always for the excellent coverage
TsuDhoNim says:
March 19, 2025 at 10:12 pm
@Ahh not again: He was named in the management team as a selector for each of last year's fixtures.
(e.g. our final game, All Ireland B Semi-Final v Down: https://mayogaa.com/2024/05/11/mayo-u20-football-team-announced-2/)
He wasn't included as part of the setup for the game tonight.
(R1 v Roscommon - https://mayogaa.com/2025/03/18/mayo-gaa-u20-football-team-announced-2/)
It wouldn't be the first case of a member of the FRC stepping away from a coaching role (e.g. Colm Nally stepped away as Skills Coach with Cavan after R2 of the league) due to the work-loads and time commitments involved (with some great work produced too). Probably not too surprising that it might have necessitated a step back on involvement here, though disappointing on the lack of communication around such a significant change.
GlasagusDearg. says:
March 20, 2025 at 12:25 am
Many positives tonight. Lots of good individual performances, we dominated possession and moved the ball and attacked with pace, purpose and directness and mixed it up with direct kick passing into our forwards. Our winning of possession from kick-outs,both via breaking ball and wonderful high fielding was a joy to watch. One of the great sights in football and harked back to the halcyon days of Willie Joe, Teddy McCarthy and others. One of the truly great benefits of the new rules. The usual Mayo negatives, wasted opportunities, efforts dropped short, far too many wides and 3 or 4 clear goal chances fluffed. Another major positive-we have been be moaning our underage teams lack of height and physicality in recent years, but this team has plenty of height and big units, which will be vitality important in order to secure primary possession in the new format and good news going forward for our seniors.
Daveslad says:
March 20, 2025 at 8:22 am
Agree on most GlasagusDearg ,excellent fielding,tight speedy backs good forwards that need coaching, at times last night they were getting in one and others way,very bunched not using the full space, if your forwards have pace they have to take on their marker in space. Overall a decent performance. Looking forward to tuam next week.
Mary Mullen says:
March 20, 2025 at 9:39 am
They are great young lads! "Mol an oige...."!
Ahh not again says:
March 20, 2025 at 3:15 pm
Thanks TsuDhonim, it would be a shame if he has stepped away, there running game was very good and that why I thought his footprint might be the reason, the shooting will have to be fixed, very poor at times