MAYO PULL AWAY IN THE FINAL QUARTER TO SEE OFF TIPPERARY
Westerners finish strong after Durcan’s fortuitous goal gives Rochford a hard-earned win
IT was comfortable in the end for Mayo, more comfortable than it should have been. Tipperary had asked enough questions of Stephen Rochford’s side not to be on the end of an eight-point margin. But they were taught a lesson about taking opportunities when they arise in this entertaining qualifier match.
Mayo supporters now take it as a given that their side is going to give them palpitations on the backroads of the Championship. And there were plenty of nerves shredded in the opening 50 minutes.
Indeed, when Liam McGrath kicked his fourth point of the evening in the 51st minute, the home side were a goal clear and Mayo looked a little rattled. But this side are at their best when they live dangerously. It makes them make the most of things when fortune smiles on them.
Sixty seconds after McGrath’s point, James Durcan had the ball nestling in Evan Comerford’s net.
It was a fortuitous goal as Durcan, who had spurned a much better goal-scoring opportunity moments before, lobbed the Tipperary goalkeeper with what looked like an attempt at a point.
That slice of luck energised the Mayo players. Lee Keegan stormed into the game around the middle of the field, where Steven O’Brien had been imperious for the first 50 minutes. Aidan O’Shea came to the fore. Paddy Durcan, who had a difficult evening in the company of the outstanding Michael Quinlivan, won two crucial one-on-one battles with the towering Tipp full-forward.
The excellent Jason Doherty and Kevin McLoughlin, who both ended the day with three points from play apiece, were consistently probing for holes in a tiring Tipperary defence as the game petered out. McGrath’s point was Tipperary’s final score of the game.
As they faded, Mayo grew in strength. From that moment until the end, Stephen Rochford’s side out-scored their opponents 1-8 to 0-0.
‘They finished stronger than we did and we will have to look at that,’ admitted Liam Kearns. ‘There were mitigating circumstances in relation to our performance against Cork but at least, we performed here. That was more like what we are. But we still came up short and I thought that was disappointing.’
Perhaps it was the warm conditions but Mayo played in spurts. They burst from the blocks and were four points up within the sixth minute when Seamus O’Shea got on the end of a flowing move that involved his brother Aidan and Chris Barrett. Tipp were finding it difficult to get in the game.
However, in the seventh minute, Liam McGrath dispossessed Kevin McLoughlin with a textbook tackle and started a counter-attack that saw Philip Austin nail Tipp’s first score of the day.
McGrath’s determination and technique set the tone for the rest of the half as Tipperary, who cautiously stood off Mayo in the opening exchanges, roared into this game.
Quinlivan’s goal shook Mayo to the core. It came from Josh Keane’s long delivery on the wing, Quinlivan leaping above Durcan to palm the ball into the net.
Austin followed it with another point to put Tipp in the lead. The hosts began to take the game to Mayo.
‘You have to look at the quality of player we were playing against. Tipperary are a fine, fine team’ Rochford said of his side’s ropey first-half performance.
‘There are definitely things to work on. Our tackling, especially in the first half, wasn’t what we needed. Our skill execution and first touch wasn’t as crisp and clean as it needed to be.’
Everything good was coming from the Tipperary half-back line where Bill Maher and Robbie Kiely were providing a platform and Mayo’s problems only intensified when Colm Boyle, making his 100th appearance for his county, was black carded just before half-time, moments after Seamus O’Shea left the fray with a suspected dislocated shoulder.
That came just after Quinlivan fired a fantastic score from the end-line, a point so good that the umpires had to go to Hawk-Eye to make sure that it went over. It did and left Tipperary two points ahead at the break, 1-7 to 0-8.
Tipperary played patient and controlled football in the second half. It was just at times that their final pass let them down.
They weren’t as clinical as they needed to be. Not as clinical as their opponents when they got the same opportunities.