Roscommon's U21 footballers went on a goal spree at MacHale Park tonight, defeating Mayo by 4-10 to 1-8.

First-half majors from Mark Nally, Man of the Match Diarmuid Murtagh and Donal Smith left the winners in a commanding eight-point lead at half time. With the game as good as over at that stage, the second half was effectively a dead rubber…

Murtagh opened the scoring for the fired-up visitors but the lead was short-lived as the hosts hit the front through an Evan Regan goal in the third minute: 1-0 to 0-1.

Murtagh claimed his second point to halve the gap but Conor O'Shea was on hand to make it 1-1 to 0-2 after 14 minutes. Regan's free left a goal between the teams but Roscommon were soon level as Mark Nally hit the net in the 17th minute to make it 1-2 apiece.

From here on it was all Roscommon: they kicked on with a run of three unanswered points - the third from a Murtagh free - to lead by 1-5 to 1-2 after 22 minutes.

After Mayo had clawed back a point, Murtagh bagged the visitors' second goal on 25 minutes and - amazingly - on the stroke of half time - Smith fired Roscommon's third goal from the penalty spot to leave eight between them at the break: 3-5 to 1-3.

Smith crashed home a fourth Roscommon goal shortly after the restart and, when James Shaughnessy fired over a rare Mayo point, there were still ten between the sides, 4-6 to 1-5.

From here to the end, the result was never in any doubt and the second half was really a non-event as the magnificent Rossies went on to win by double scores … a whopping eleven points!

Roscommon - C Lavin; D Murray, S Mullooly, C Kenny; C Daly, F Kelly, F Sweeney; T O'Rourke, T Corcoran; C Kilcline (0-1), M Healy (0-1), E Smith (0-2); D Murtagh (1-5, 0-4f), M Nally (1-0), D Smith (2-0, 1-0pen). Subs: U Harney (0-1) for T Corcoran, R Davey for F Sweeney, S Killoran for T O'Rourke, K Finn for M Nally, J Earley for C Kilcline.

Mayo - M Flanagan; K Lynch, L Kitterick, A Butler; C Burke, S Coen, P O'Hora; P Prendergast, D O'Connor (0-1); G O'Donnell, M Plunkett, A Gallagher (0-1); J Shaughnessy (0-1), E Regan (1-3, 0-2f), C O'Shea (0-1). Subs: E Collins (0-1) for P O'Hora, S Conroy for M Plunkett, A Jordan for P Prendergast, M Hall for C Burke (BC), S Regan for J Shaughnessy.

Referee - E O'Grady. Tweet

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