GAA: Mayo lay down marker in emphatic 4-19 to 0-09 win over Roscommon
By Sean McCarthy
Last Updated: 08/08/17 7:41am
Three goals in four first-half minutes sealed an easy 4-19 to 0-09 win over Roscommon as Mayo booked their place in the semi-final against Kerry in two weeks time.
Roscommon went 22 minutes in the first half of the drawn game without scoring and went the first 21 minutes of this game before Enda Smith got their first point.
At that stage, Mayo had already 0-06 on the board. Sean Mullooly got another point back for Roscommon but then in a crazy four minutes, Mayo hit the back of the net three times through Kevin McLoughlin, Andy Moran and Keith Higgins.
McLoughlin practically walked into the Roscommon large rectangle as the defenders hesitated when it looked like he would point but he continued his movement and slotted the ball by Colm Lavin.
Less than 60 seconds later, Lavin had to pick the ball out of the net again as Andy Moran finished off a lovely run by Keith Higgins and Moran had a simple tap in.
They almost had a third a minute later but Roscommon cleared their lines. However, when Mayo are in the mood, very few teams can stop them and Keith Higgins got his first ever goal for Mayo. That left it 3-06 to 0-02 and the game was all but over.
The big surprise before the game was the fact Stephen Rochford didn't start Lee Keegan or Ger Cafferkey.
Keegan was instrumental in Mayo's first-half comeback last week and got 1-03. He was played in midfield last week to mark Enda Smith but this week Tom Parsons got the call and Donal Vaughan started for Cafferkey.
Roscommon did not help themselves with some short kick-outs that only ended up with the ball back in the hands of Mayo players. The game plan wasn't working but they seemed unable to resolve it as Mayo dominated every position.
Cillian O'Connor also put in a shift and finished with 1-06 after getting some criticism for his misses at the end of the game last week.
Leading 3-08 to 0-04 at half-time, Mayo continued where they left off and it was one-way traffic for most of the game.
Mayo could have added more than one goal to the board but either took their point or simply missed when it was easier to score.
Twelve minutes into the second half, they got their fourth goal after another shocking kick out won easily by Mayo and it was worked to Cillian O'Connor, who drilled it home.
That made it 4-10 to 0-05 points and a few minutes later, Fintan Cregg a half-time substitute, got his second yellow and Roscommon were down to 14 men.
Rochford emptied his bench at this point as players lay down a marker for a starting 15 position. Andy Dillon came on for Andy Moran and both players got a great reception from the Mayo supporters.
Aidan O'Shea, who had a much better game today, also got a great reception when he went off with eight minutes to go.
Mayo supporters will be relieved that their team finally put on a show for them after scraping by Derry and Cork in earlier rounds and also not killing off Roscommon last week when they missed a number of chances to do so.
The Munster champions Kerry will be a much different and difficult task on August 20 but as the draw pitted Munster and Connacht on the same side of the draw, both teams would have been preparing for this semi-final clash since the start of the year.
You can watch all the action live on Sky Sports over the coming weeks.
Mayo: D Clarke, B Harrison, D Vaughan (0-01), K Higgins (1-00), C Boyle, C Barrett (0-01), P Durcan, T Parsons (0-01), S O'Shea, K McLoughlin (1-00), A O'Shea (0-02), D O'Connor (0-01), J Doherty (0-02), C O'Connor (1-06, 0-06f), A Moran (1-01).
Subs: C Loftus for Doherty 47, D Drake (0-01) for McLoughlin 54, A Dillon for Moran 61, S Coen (0-01) for Vaughan 61, D Kirby for A O'Shea 62, S Nally (0-02) for Barrett 66.
Roscommon: C Lavin, S McDermott, N McInerney, D Murray, J McManus, S Mullooly (0-01), B Stack, T O'Rourke, E Smith (0-01), C Fitzmaurice, N Kilroy (0-01), C Devaney (0-01), Cathal Compton, D Murtagh (0-04, 0-02f), C Connolly.
Subs; C Murtagh for Compton HT, G Patterson for McDermott HT, F Cregg for Connolly HT, D Smith (0-01) for B Stack 48, I Kilbride for Devaney 61, Colin Compton for E Smith 63.
Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).
