Three late points from Sean
Armstrong, Paul Conroy and Cormac Bane steered
Galway to their 44th Connacht SFC title at
Castlebar. The Tribesmen tasted
provincial glory for the first time since 2005 as
they held off a fiery second half comeback from
their arch rivals Mayo. Goals from Padraig Joyce (21
minutes) and Fiachra Breathnach (28) had Galway
leading by 2-04 to 0-06 at half-time. With the
fit-again Alan Dillon (0-07) in top-scoring form,
Mayo quickly got back in touch and they managed to
edge ahead in the 51st-minute when substitute Aidan
Kilcoyne netted. But, encouraged by that trio of
points, Galway crucially had the better finish and
Mayo's search for a late, levelling point was an
unrewarding one as Conor Mortimer missed a
74th-minute free. Meeting Galway for the seventh
successive year in the championship, Mayo brought
the fit-again Alan Dillon in as the only change to
the team that secured them a memorable 3-11 to 0-07
semi-final win over last year's Connacht champions
Sligo. Galway, who beat Roscommon 2-16 to 0-06 last
time out, drafted Niall Coyne, Diarmuid Blake, Barry
Cullinane and Cormac Bane into their starting
line-up for what was the 109th Connacht final.
Having won the toss, Mayo opted to play with the
wind advantage but that move backfired on them as
Galway, threading through some delightful 40-50 yard
balls, continually sliced open their opponents'
defence. The inexperienced Colm Boyle and Kieran
Conroy, only in their second championship outings,
were ruthlessly exposed by Galway's quick-witted
attack, while old hands David Heaney and James
Nallen struggled initially to keep tabs on their
men. Mayo certainly had defensive problems but they
were able to keep in the game thanks to the
decision-making of Dillon and the Mortimer brothers
up front. They edged 0-03 to 0-02 ahead by the
midpoint of the first half, with their scores coming
either from frees or individual efforts rather than
team-crafted attacks.Galway hit the front in the
fourth-minute when Nicky Joyce darted forward and
won a free which Michael Meehan pointed. Mayo were
quickly back on terms when Dillon curled over a
pinpoint free, two minutes later, as Galway made a
flurry of positional switches at the other end.The
first clear cut goal chance followed in the
ninth-minute when Nicky Joyce forces a good save
from David Clarke, after his cousin Padraig Joyce
had cleverly picked out Cormac Bane with a through
ball. Mayo, who used Trevor Mortimer as a third
midfielder before injury cut short his afternoon,
were struggling to up the gears at this stage. Just
moments later, Nicky Joyce again rampaged through
the Mayo defence, he linked with Padraig Joyce but
the team captain's left-footed shot was off target
as he looked to test Clarke. The game began to pick
up pace as Trevor Mortimer accelerated through the
Galway rearguard and pointed on the run. Bane, set
up by Niall Coleman and Meehan, replied from an
acute angle at the other end before Dillon hit the
post with a fisted effort. A superb catch from Pat
Harte from a kick-out led to a Conor Mortimer point.
Mayo's lead lasted just two minutes as Padraig Joyce
catapulted his side ahead with a quick 1-01.The
veteran forward fired over a great point off his
left, into the wind, before scoring a wonderful
individual goal. He collected a loose ball 20 metres
out from goal, rode a challenge from Tom Cunniffe
and sent three Mayo defenders the wrong way before
dispatching the ball to the bottom right corner of
Clarke's net. Galway were transferring their
dominance onto the scoreboard as Bane, first to the
ball again, lobbed over from the left. A second goal
followed for Liam Sammon's side, seven minutes
before the interval, when the busy Matthew Clancy
raced through Mayo's centre. He was chopped down by
Nallen but got up to continue his progress before
Meehan fisted over to the left where Fiachra
Breathnach was able to sneak a low shot to the net
for his first championship goal. Now seven points
ahead, Galway looked to be coasting but three points
from Mayo in the closing stages of the first half
gave a preview of what was a fiercely contested
second period. Dillon landed a right-footed free,
Mayo skipper Ronan McGarrity also pointed after a
good right wing attack involving Aidan Kilcoyne and
the increasingly influential Dillon thumped an
excellent point over from the left to complete that
run of scores. Mayo boss John O'Mahony performed a
considerable amount of surgery on his team in and
around half-time, with Boyle and Conroy making way
for Peadar Gardiner and Aidan Higgins. In attack,
both Kilcoyne and Billy Joe Padden were introduced
to good effect and the switches seemed to have the
desired effect, coinciding with a lull in Galway's
play. Mayo began to look the part on the resumption
as Conor Mortimer got away from his marker Damien
Burke to boot an excellent 37th-minute point.
Galway, who lost Clancy to concussion, responded
with a Meehan free but Mayo continued to turn the
screw with white flags from Dillon (0-02) and
Padden. In between, Galway's superb corner back
Gareth Bradshaw, who turned in a man-of-the-match
display after his move into the half-back line,
fired over a fine right-footed point. Dillon's fifth
point after a foul by Burke on Mortimer made it a
two-point game at 2-06 to 0-10 and Galway seemed to
be wavering with Nicky Joyce hitting an horrific
wide. Mayo, having noticeably upped the pace,
suddenly powered ahead A booming free from Dillon
from the left slid off target and the ball, dropping
to the right of the square, was broken down by Andy
Moran for Kilcoyne to slot home, stunning Paul
Doherty and the Galway defence. It was Mayo's first
goal against Galway in the championship since 2002
and looked to be the likely springboard to inspire
then over the remaining 20 minutes. Galway looked to
their talismanic captain Joyce to draw them level
with Mayo for the fourth and fifth time. Joyce's two
points sandwiched a classy score from Mayo
midfielder Pat Harte. While Galway left a couple of
goal-scoring chances behind them in the first half,
Mayo almost doubled their goal tally on 60 minutes
when Kilcoyne, set up by Dillon, squeezed a
left-footed shot just inches wide of Doherty's goal.
In a tension-filled finale, Bradshaw teed up Meehan
for a relieving point, shooting the Tribesmen ahead
again at 2-09 to 1-11. Padden linked with his fellow
substitute Gardiner before tying up the game for the
sixth time. However, a quick Mayo attack led to
another successful Dillon free after Paul Conroy,
one of Galway's minor stars last year, was pinged
for taking too many steps. As the sides went tit for
tat, Galway managed to break clear as they carved
out the victory with three impressive points in as
many minutes. With his side 2-09 to 1-13 behind,
Sean Armstrong succeeded in squaring up the game
before Conroy fired over an excellent point off his
right and Bane then brilliantly followed up with a
skyscraper score from centre-field. The two-point
buffer gave Galway enough latitude to see out the
win as they gleefully lifted the JJ Nestor Cup for
the fifth time this decade. Two minutes into
injury-time, Dillon hit a close range free to close
the gap to a single point but Galway stubbornly held
their ground in the helter skelter final moments.
Scorers - Galway: P Joyce 1-03,
F Breathnach 1-00, M Meehan (0-02f), C Bane 0-03
each, G Bradshaw, S Armstrong, P Conroy 0-01 each.
Mayo: A Dillon 0-07 (0-05f),
A Kilcoyne 1-00, BJ Padden, C Mortimer 0-02 each, T
Mortimer, R McGarrity, P Harte 0-01 each.
Galway: P Doherty; G
Bradshaw, F Hanley, D Burke; N Coyne, D Blake, G
Sice; B Cullinane, N Coleman; C Bane, P Joyce
(Capt.), N Joyce; M Clancy, M Meehan, F Breathnach.
Subs: K Fitzgerald (for Coyne 35+1
mins), S Armstrong (for Clancy h/t), P Conroy (for
Coleman 54), M Lydon (for N Joyce 57), N Coleman
(for Breathnach 70+3).
Mayo: D Clarke; K Higgins, K
Conroy, C Boyle; T Cunniffe, D Heaney, J Nallen; R
McGarrity (Capt.), T Parsons; A Dillon, P Harte, T
Mortimer; C Mortimer, A O'Malley, A Moran.
Subs: A Kilcoyne (for T Mortimer 23
mins), P Gardiner (for Boyle 31), A Higgins (for
Conroy 31), BJ Padden (for O'Malley 40), M Ronaldson
(for Parsons 70).
Referee: David Goldrick
(Meath).
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