Galway 3-15

Mayo 0-11

 Connacht Minor Football Championship Preliminary Round

Sunday 30^th April, MacHale Park

Galway advanced to the Semi Final of the Connacht Minor Championship to meet Roscommon on the 28th of June after a relatively easy win over a disappointing Mayo outfit who never got going this Sunday last in MacHale Park. Three first half goals, coming from wing forward Mattie Kerrigan and Daniel Kenny who lined out at the top of the square despite wearing 9 on his back, ultimately proved to be the crucial scores in this game. The score of the game was the third goal, which came after a beautiful long pass from Man of the Match Evan Murphy found Kenny who finished with aplomb past McNicholas in the Mayo goal. This was the last score of the half, and saw the Tribesmen head for the dressing rooms with a commanding 3-7 to 0-7 point lead, despite playing into the healthy breeze swirling around MacHale Park.

For the opening twenty minutes  Mayo were well in the contest, and best for them on the day were inside forwards John Gallagher and  Tommy Conroy aswell as goalkeeper McNicholas, who pulled off a few eye catching saves. However they were never really able to narrow the gap to their fierce rivals, and in the end Galway ran out comfortable winners infront of a large crowd of almost two thousand. Best on the day for Galway were outstanding captain and full back Seán Mulkerrin, centre forward Darragh Silke and Evan Murphy, who operated around the middle third for most of the game. They now look forward with optimism to the rest of the campaign , and will be quietly confidant of securing their third Connacht Minor title in a row. For Mayo it was their last ever game at Minor, as the competition will now be revamped to an U17 format from 2018 onwards.

GALWAY

O Burke, E McFadden, S Mulkerrin, G Burke, J Glynn, S Fitzgerald, L Boyle, M Barrett (0-1), D Kenny (2-0), B Harlowe, D Silke (0-2, 2f), M Kerrigan (1-0), R Cunningham (0-3), E Murphy (0-5, 3f) P Costello (0-2).

Subs: C Campbell (0-1) for Kerrigan (24), M Tierney (0-1) for Silke (48), C Walsh for Harlowe (50).

MAYO

J McNicholas, J Coyne, M Dervan, O O’Malley, P Towey, G Durcan, C Beirne, J Dawson, C Golding, S McGreal, N Moran, M McGarry (0-1), C Slattery (0-1) , J Gallagher (0-3, 2f) , T Conroy (0-2).

Subs: C Callaghan (0-1) for Golding (24), D Prendergast (0-1) for Slattery (35), M Conroy (0-1) for McGarry (45), S Keane for Prendergast (50), P Lambert for McGreal (54).