MAYO CAUSE A HEALY EXIT
PEADAR HEALY stepped down as Cork football manager last night after Cillian O’connor fired Mayo through to the All-ireland quarter-finals with 11 points in an extra-time epic at the Gaelic Grounds.
The veteran full-forward’s 87th minute point from a 45 proved the winner in a pulsating Gaelic Grounds encounter.
It’s the seventh consecutive year that Mayo are through to the last eight but they made mighty hard work of it.
Last year’s beaten All-ireland finalists blew a seven-point lead with just over 20 minutes to go in normal-time.
Cork goals from Sean Powter and Luke Connolly forced extra-time in front of 13,545 at the Limerick venue. And the raging underdogs led by two points at one stage in the firsthalf of extra-time.
But four Mayo points in a row including two from talisman O’connor ultimately edged it for Mayo.
Every Mayo point was greeted with a huge cheer compared to muted applause for each of Cork’s scores.
Cork lost corner-back Jamie O’sullivan to a black card late in the opening half for a late hit on Aidan O’shea (inset). O’connor converted the free and Mayo closed out the half with three points in a row to put some daylight between the sides.
A tough job got a lot harder for Cork when they lost star midfielder Aidan Walsh to ankle injury early in the second-half.
Mayo piled on the misery with four points in a row to open up a double scores 0-14 to 0-7 lead.
And they still led by six with 55 minutes on the clock but couldn’t hold out. But Mayo wanted it that bit morein extra time and ground out a morale boosting win.
D Clarke; B Harrison, G Cafferkey, C Barrett; L Keegan (0-1), K Higgins (0-1), C Boyle; S O’shea, T Parsons (0-1); K Mcloughlin, A O’shea (0-3), D O’connor (0-1); J Doherty (0-1), C O’connor (0-11, 4f, 1 45), A Moran (0-4). Subs: P Durcan (0-2) for Barrett 44, S Coen for S O’shea 49, D Vaughan for Boyle 53, D Drake for Keegan (59, black card), C Loftus ((0-2) for Moran 63. C Crowe for Cafferkey 80+3, E Regan for Mcloughlin h/t e/t, Boyle for Doherty h/t e/t, A Dillon for D O’connor 87.
R Price; J Loughrey, J O’sullivan, M Shields; T Clancy (0-1), E Cadogan, C O’driscoll; A Walsh, I Maguire; M Collins, S Powter (1-0), J O’rourke (0-3); B O’driscoll (0-1), P Kerrigan (0-3), D O’connor (0-6, 4f). Subs: K Crowley for Loughrey 20, S Cronin for O’sullivan 35+1, black card, R Deane for Walsh 37, C O’neill (0-3, 1f) for Shields 46, L Connolly (1-1, 1f) for B O’driscoll 54, M Hurley (0-2) for O’connor 62. S White for O’rourke e/t, K O’driscoll for Maguire e/t, A O’connor for C O’driscoll e/t, C Dorman for Crowley 76, K O’driscoll for Powter 80+3, Shields for Cronin 87. C Branagan (Down).