IT’S A WHOLE NEW’
After a week of high drama, O’Neill’s men make it count to dump Mayo
SUCH have their fortunes flipped that the team who could not win for the year picked up their second victory inside 72 hours.
And, in truth, this success magnified the significance of their stand earlier in the week when they stayed true to their battle cry, ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’.
The real fear was that they could have been fatally drained by the successful fight to get the game played at St Conleth’s Park, or cowed by the real pressure they carried on their shoulders to deliver on the home field advantage they had fought so fiercely for.
In the end they chose to be inspired, deciding that one act of defiance should beget another. And in the process they may just have gone and buried one of the most defiant team the game has ever witnessed.
In truth, Mayo arrived here looking vulnerable, stepping into a Kildare cauldron with a team, some of whose main working parts were perceived to be gasping with supposed exhaustion, others not there at all.
Since the opening Championship match of his reign — an emphatic win over London in Ruislip — this was the first game that Stephen Rochford went into battle without either of his first choice midfielders, Seamus O’Shea and Tom Parsons.
Both gone for the season and perhaps even for good given the catastrophic nature of the ligament damage Parsons sustained when dislocating his knee and O’Shea’s age profile.
It presented a daunting challenge and this time it was one they could not overcome.
Typically, though, they responded by going and hammering the hammer. Their perceived weakness morphed into a strength for much of this contest as they devoured Kildare around the middle.
Cometh the moment, cometh the man with Aidan O’Shea producing a towering second-quarter display which changed the whole mood of the contest, but his day would end in dismal disappointment after he was shown a second yellow card in injury-time.
Early on, Kildare seemed to be still sucking oxygen from their off-field success and settled into the contest, getting an early run on the visitors.
In those opening minutes, Mayo looked all at sea, not least in defence, where Daniel Flynn’s pace and strength had a clearly unsettling effect.
When the full-forward forced a 45 which Neil Flynn converted in the 17th minute, they were five clear (0-7 to 0-2), but it was a lead that was too good to last. For all the talk that Kildare would wreak havoc around the middle, it actually worked the other way.
Mayo turned over six of Mark Donnellan’s re-starts and, while they would only reap one point – the first of four well taken points by the excellent Paddy Durcan in the 25th minute – it sent out a signal that they would not be bullied in the sky.
O’Shea, in particular, imposed his authority on Tommy Moolick but he was perfectly complemented by the excellent Diarmuid O’Connor, whose mobility made him an inviting receiving target on David Clarke’s kick-outs.
It meant that Kildare’s muchanticipated pressing game never got off the blocks in the first half, even though they got a glimpse of the rewards that were there to be had as early as the seventh minute, when Clarke’s re-start went over the sideline and Kevin Feely — the clearly not fully fit — pointed from the follow-up play.
But instead of being under pressure on their re-starts in the firsthalf, Mayo positively thrived, with three of their first-half points coming directly from securing possession on short kick-outs.
It says much that, given how Kildare struggled to win primary possession, they more than matched Kildare stride for stride for all kinds of reasons. In the main it was down to their unquenchable spirit and some outstanding individual performances. None were as compelling as that delivered by Paul Cribbin, who had the conviction to run hard at the Mayo rearguard.
It yielded four points from play which could have been more – he also kicked a couple wide – but he showed the rest the way. And they followed in style to produce a thrill-a-minute second half in which the teams were level on six occasions.
Cian O’Neill went to his bench to some effect, the pace of David Slattery setting up Daniel Flynn for a crucial second half point, and when Feely kicked them in front in the 52nd minute they drove on from there.
It was heroic stuff, pockmarked by some huge plays. Peter Kelly came up with a huge interception and got on the end of the move he started to punch a lead point in the 65th minute. In the very next play, Johnny Byrne forced another turnover, which sub Niall Kelly finished to put Kildare two clear. And the little ground exploded when Eamon Callaghan put the final nail in Mayo’s coffin deep in injury time. KILDARE: M Donnellan; P Kelly, D Hyland, M O’Grady; J Byrne (J Murray, 68), E Doyle (E Callaghan, 64), K Flynn; K Feely, T Moolick (N Kelly, 55); F Conway, P Cribbin, K Cribbin (D Slattery, 48); N Flynn, D Flynn, P Brophy (C Healy, 52). Scorers: N Flynn 0-8 (0-6 frees, 00-1 45), P Cribbin 0-4, K Feely and D Flynn 0-2 each, P Kelly, J Byrne, F Conway, N Kelly and E Callaghan 0-1. Wides: (5) 10 Yellow cards: T Moolick (30), K Feely (61) MAYO: D Clarke; C Barrett, G Cafferkey, P Durcan; L Keegan, C Boyle (E O’Donoghue, 57), K Higgins; D O’Connor, A O’Shea; K McLoughlin, J Doherty (C Loftus, 68), S Coen; J Durcan (D Vaughan, 69) C O’Connor, A Moran. Scorers: C O’Connor 0-6 (free), P Durcan 0-4, A Moran 0-3 (0-1 free), J Doherty 0-2, D O’Connor, K McLoughlin, E O’Donoghue and S Coen 0-1 each. Wides: (4) 8 Black cards: K McLoughlin (70&2) Yellow cards:A O’Shea (58 & 75) Red cards: A O’Shea (75) Referee: D Gough (Meath)