Star man Doherty takes Mayo drama in his stride
IF you support this group of Mayo footballers, drama is just accepted as a matter of course, regardless of who they are playing. Or where.
The scoreline suggests that this sun-splashed Saturday evening in Thurles was comfortable and routine. The reality was that for 50 minutes, it was anything but. Mayo lived dangerously. They don’t do routine.
Stephen Rochford won’t mind. He has learnt in the past few summers that the only way to negotiate the hazards of the qualifiers is by ensuring your name is in the drum for the next draw. That’s where his team are this morning.
Jason Doherty was one of their best players, kicking three points from play and ceaselessly searching for holes in Tipperary’s wellorganised defence.
‘It sets us up brilliant for the next game,’ the forward observed. ‘Last year was a good learning curve. We know if we look down the road, beyond the next game, we could be in big trouble.’
There may still be trouble ahead. Seamus O’Shea spent Saturday night in hospital with a suspected dislocated shoulder. On top of Tom Parsons’ knee injury, Rochford is now looking at a midfield injury crisis although Diarmuid O’Connor did perform well around there when he came on.
Colm Boyle marked his 100th competitive appearance by getting a black card on the stroke of half-time, for needlessly pulling down Robbie Kiely.
Cillian O’Connor was also well below par, even though he nailed five frees, while there were times, especially in the first-half, when Mayo overdid things in an attempt to break Tipperary down.
James Durcan’s fortunate goal changed the entire complexion of this match — just a moment beforehand, Liam McGrath had kicked Tipperary three points ahead as the game entering its final stages.
From there it was one-way traffic. Mayo out-scored their opponents 1-8 to 0-0. When the game was in the melting pot, leaders — such as Lee Keegan and the outstanding Kevin McLoughlin — stood up. As did Paddy Durcan.
Parachuted into the full-back line to deal with the threat of the superb Michael Quinlivan, it looked like he was in for a torrid evening when the towering Tipp full-forward palmed Josh Keane’s delivery into the net in the ninth minute but Durcan steadied himself, winning two key one-on-one tussles late in the game.
Rochford felt Durcan, and Ger Cafferkey alongside him in the full-back line, acted as bouncers, shepherding their team away from any hint of trouble in the closing stages.
‘I thought Paddy, for a guy thrown into the full-back position, revelled in it and that on the back of a fine defensive performance against Galway, it has shown his quality and how he is maturing into a top footballer. Him and Ger acted like bouncers back there,’ Rochford said.
It wouldn’t be Mayo without testing the heart-rate of their supporters, who were in fine voice among the 10,500 at Semple Stadium.
For long periods of the first half, with Steven O’Brien majestic in centrefield and Brian Fox excelling in the sweeper role, Tipperary had them on the ropes.
This was a much better performance from the Premier County than the flat display against Cork. Had they asked even more of Mayo, who knows where the evening would have taken time.
Liam Kearns remained committed to the job afterwards, realising the potential that is within the team.
‘I won’t be walking away.’ He said. ‘Our progress at Championship is stagnant, even though we met traditionally strong teams In Mayo and Cork.
“We were last 16 last year, we didn’t make it this year as Mayo knocked us out.
‘That means we stagnated and that is the first time in three years that we haven’t progressed. I know Mayo are the second-best team in the country but they are the teams you want to beat if you want to make progress. But there’s an awful lot to build on.’
As the second-half progressed, Mayo settled into a rhythm. They would have probably stretched for home even if Durcan’s strike hadn’t hit the back of the net, it just mightn’t have been as emphatic.
Keegan added a bit more thrust around the middle third, Aidan O’Shea’s influence while Conor Loftus and Eoin O’Donoghue both showed well.
‘It took us longer than expected to get going but we definitely started moving well by the end,’ Doherty said.
‘It is a good sign of our fitness that we were able to push on when things opened up a bit more in the second-half. But we were made to work to make sure we didn’t screw up.’ MAYO: D Clarke; P Durcan, G Cafferkey, K Higgins; C Boyle (C Hanley 35+2 -BC), C Barrett (E O’Donoghue 55), L Keegan; S O’Shea (D O’Connor 30, D Kirby 70), S Coen; K McLoughlin, A O’Shea, J Doherty; J Durcan, C O’Connor (E Regan 67), A Moran (C Loftus 69) Scorers: J Durcan 1-2, C O’Connor 0-5 (5f), J Doherty, K McLoughlin 0-3 each, S O’Shea, C Loftus (f), A Moran, L Keegan, A O’Shea, P Durcan 0-1 each TIPPERARY: E Comerford; S O’Connell, J Meagher, A Campbell; B Maher, R Kiely, J Feehan (K Fahey 65); J Kennedy (L Casey 60), S O’Brien (G Hannigan 71); J Keane (J Lonergan 67), P Austin (L Boland 58), L McGrath (K O’Halloran 63); C Sweeney, M Quinlivan, B Fox Scorers: M Quinlivan 1-2, L McGrath 0-4 (2f), P Austin 0-2, C Sweeney 0-2 each, J Kennedy 0-1 Referee: M Deegan (Laois).