Moran has sympathy for Mohill
Castlebar Mitchels 0-16 Mohill 0-11
MAYO star Barry Moran took little pleasure out of beating Mohill — because it’s the club in Leitrim his parents are associated with.
his father Martin won a county title there in 1971 and Moran admitted he knew what it would mean to him and mother Mae if they became the first from Leitrim to lift the Connacht title.
he said: “I spent my childhood down there every weekend so I would know most of the lads.
“We knew it was always going to be heavy going. We’d done our homework on them and knew they were going to be very, very hard to break down.”
The sides were level four times in the opening half but Castlebar started and finished the period strongly to lead 0-7 to 0-5 when they turned around.
Keith Beirne and ronan Kennedy presented the biggest threat for Mohill but they looked in trouble when Moran and Danny Kirby pushed the lead to 0-9 to 0-5 just six minutes into the second half.
The hosts rallied though with oisin Madden pointing, Beirne hit another free before Kennedy found the target and then Beirne levelled with a placed ball to tie the game at 0-9.
But Neil Douglas took over, hitting three points as Castlebar pulled away to seal a semi-final against Tourlestrane. “We’ll need to improve for it,” said Moran.