IT’S NET GAINS IN MAYO

Rampant Westerners ram home four goals to thrash Tyrone in Castlebar

HIGH-FLYING Mayo continued their march up the table as they proved too hot to handle last night.

First half goals from Aidan O’Shea and James Carr set Kevin McStay’s charges on their way to their second win in seven days on home ground, with Enda Hession and Diarmuid O’Connor also hitting the net.

This was the Westerners’ first victory over Tyrone in Castlebar for more than 40 years as the 2021 All-Ireland champions slumped to their third away defeat in their last four games.

A crowd of 12,218 saw Mayo’s attacking ace Tommy Conroy make his long-awaited return from injury as he came off the bench in the closing stages.

Despite getting off to a slow start, Mayo led at the interval by 2-5 to 0-5.

Tyrone had dominated the first quarter and deservedly led by 0-4 to 0-1 after 20 minutes. Mayo’s opening score came on 18 minutes from a Ryan O’Donoghue free.

But McStay’s upwardly mobile outfit then sparked into life and outscored the visitors 2-4 to no score in the space of 13 minutes.

O’Shea got the ball rolling with a closerange finish to the Tyrone net on 25 minutes.

That goal put Mayo ahead for the first time and they never looked back. Points from Ryan O’Donoghue (free) and Conor Loftus put them in the driving seat and a cool finish from Carr – his third goal in four games – left Tyrone in real trouble.

A point from the excellent Jack Carney pushed Mayo ahead by 2-5 to 0-4 after 33 minutes.

Tyrone, who looked a pale shadow of the side that won the Sam Maguire Cup 18 months ago, were badly in need of a score to stem the tide.

It arrived via a well-struck ‘45 from their prolific goalkeeper Niall Morgan in the 34th minute to end a period of 14 minutes without a score.

But Mayo set about putting the issue beyond doubt in the early stages of the second half with defender Enda Hession weaving his way through the Tyrone defence to score a wonderful goal just five minutes after the restart – his first ever at this level.

Despite a neat score from Darragh Canavan, and frees from Morgan and Darren McCurry (2), Tyrone were unable to get any closer than five points after 60 minutes.

McStay’s men kicked on again in the closing stages with veteran forward Cillian O’Connor coming off the bench to hit the target. Goalkeeper Colm Reape ( free), Fionn McDonagh and Jason Doherty also got on the scoresheet as the Westerners pulled away again.

Midfield general Diarmuid O’Connor also rounded off a fine display with a superb goal in the 68th minute.

All Tyrone could muster up by way of scores in the last 15 minutes were token efforts from Frank Burns and Darragh Canavan ( free).

And their woes were compounded when Conn Kilpatrick was shown a black card before the end.