Mayo Success
Despite being in six All Ireland finals since 1991, Mayo minors had not won an All-Ireland title since their success against Cork in 1985. Both teams, Mayo and Tyrone, Lined out for the throw up at quarter past one and ninty seconds in Tyrone got the first score with a point from Ronan Nugent. Mayo had to wait until the fourth minute for Liam Irwin to get them off the mark with a free. Play continued with three more frees, one from Tyrone’s Lee Brennan and another two from Irwin making the score 0-02 to 0-03 to Mayo. Nugent making it level again with his second point of the day. Twenty minutes in and Mayo have yet to score from play. Tyrone seemed to be settling into the game better after David Mulgrew scored a lovely point putting Tyrone in the lead. Having scored fourteen goals in five games prior to Sunday, it didn’t come to much of a surprise that Mayo put the ball in the net first with a brilliant goal from Tommy Conroy. It was quickly followed by another point from Connor McKenna of Tyrone. Mayo lead by a point at halftime.
Mayo got the second half off to a great start with scores from Conor Loftus, Tommy Conry and two Daire Doherty, extending Mayo’s lead by four. Daire Doherty made the score 2-08 to 0-06 when he scored Mayo’s second goal of the day. Tyrone tried to get back in the game scoring four points in the following four minutes of play. After a point from Conor Loftus and Tyrone’s sub Cathal McShane, Mayo lead by three points with ten minutes to go. The next few minutes were filled with wides from both sides before Conroy kicks a nice point for Mayo, they now lead by four. 57 minutes in Loftus scores his third point of the day for Mayo. Connor McKenna flicked home a late goal to make it an edgy finish but Mayo held on. The final ended in the favour of Mayo, 2-13 to 1-13.
After a 28 year wait the Mayo captain, Stephen Coen and the team the Tom Markham Cup and brought it home to Castlebar on Monday evening where they were greeted by 8,000 supporters in McHale Park. We are very proud of our minor team and look forward to witness further success from them in the future as they join our senior squad.
