The sun shone brightly this evening at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park – where the pitch looked in great nick, the fading rugby markings still visible – but it proved stormy weather for Leitrim’s U20 footballers as our lads steamrolled them by a margin of 23 points in this Connacht U20 Championship Round 3 game. It finished 5-16 to 0-8 in favour of the home team.

In front of a small crowd in Castlebar, Peadar Gardiner’s charges led from first to last. Leitrim battled hard for long stretches, giving us plenty of bother throughout in the middle third, but they had no answer to the firepower we had up top, while their shooting left much to be desired. They ended the evening with twelve wides.

Two long balls in yielded two early scores for us. The first came from Niall Hurley and the second from Josh Carey.

We were playing into the Albany end, facing a tricky enough wind, but that didn’t stop Tom Lydon ramming over a two-pointer to double our lead. Niall Hurley, well outside the arc when he pulled the trigger, added a second two-pointer shortly afterwards.

Significant daylight was then opened up when Oisín Cronin, fed by Cathal Keaveney, took the ball around the ‘keeper and walked it into the net. Nine up now midway through the first half and the visitors had yet to get off the mark.

Cathal Kelly finally opened their account from a free on 17 minutes. But then Cathal Keaveney, having converted a right-sided free off his left, provided the assist for his side’s second goal, this one finished to the net by Colm McHale.

Leitrim, to their credit, bagged the next three scores. After that, though, Tom Lydon hit back with a brace, the second from a free, as we went in eleven points in front.

We started the second half as we’d ended the first, with Niall Hurley and Josh Carey adding quickfire scores. Then Paul Gilmore was black-carded for a pull-down but over the next ten minutes, while Mayo were a player down, things went from bad to worse for the visitors.

Darragh Beirne wasn’t long on the field when he found himself with the simple task of palming the ball to the net, fed by Séamus Howard. Then, after they responded with two points, we got a fourth goal, this one crashed emphatically to the net by Tom Lydon, from a Hurley assist.

The game was done and dusted now. Leitrim failed to add to their tally after that as we tacked on points from Darragh Beirne (a free), Oisín Cronin, following a delicious disguised lay-off from Tom Lydon, Paul Gilmore and Niall Hurley.

The grace note was provided by Darragh Beirne, following Hurley’s score, when we turned over Leitrim’s restart and the Claremorris player rammed it low and hard to the net. The same player then closed out our scoring with a free in injury time.

So it’s three wins from three in this U20 campaign for Peadar Gardiner’s charges. They have a bye next week before a Round 5 trip to Kilcoyne Park, Tubbercurry, to face Sligo (who beat Galway by a point in this evening’s other game), as the knockout stage of this provincial Championship approaches.

Brief match highlights from Connacht GAA here.

Mayo: Conor Meaney; Rio Mortimer, Paul Gilmore (0-1), Eoin McGreal; Hugh O’Loughlin, John MacMonagle, Colm McHale (1-0); Oliver Armstrong, Séamus Howard; Oisín Cronin (1-1), Cathal Keaveney (0-1, free), Diarmuid Duffy; Josh Carey (0-2), Tom Lydon (1-4, one 2pt, one free), Niall Hurley (0-5, one 2pt). Subs: Colm Lynch for McGreal, Dara Neary for Armstrong, Darragh Beirne (2-2, two frees) for Carey, Luke Feeney for Howard, Senan Guilfoyle for Keaveney.