It was a walk in Gaelic Park for Mayo as they inflicted a heavy 1-22 to 0-4 defeat on New York.

Despite being guilty of a series of poor wides, the recently-crowned national football league winners – who played with fierce intensity - easily advanced to a semi-final meeting with either Roscommon or Leitrim.

Evan Regan netted the game’s only goal on the stroke of half time as the winners amassed a huge 16-point interval lead, 1-15 to 0-2. Home custodian Vinny Cadden brilliantly saved Man of the Match Regan’s initial shot but he easily stroked the rebound to an empty net to close the first-half scoring.

Mayo slotted the first 14 points of a one-sided encounter and had nine first-half scorers, meeting with little or no resistance on a rainy afternoon in the Bronx, Regan hitting 1-4 in the first half.

There was never any danger of an upset in this game as the visitors arrowed over six unanswered points inside the opening quarter of an hour to assume complete control of proceedings.

With Colm Boyle and Regan both parachuted into the Mayo XV from the off, the latter opened the scoring from a fifth-minute free into the Broadway end. Debutant James McCormack and Fionn McDonagh followed up with points.

But for some poor shooting, James Horan’s men would have been home and hosed inside ten minutes. Regan’s second free made it four points to nothing and he then knocked over a sumptuous strike from play to make it 0-5 to 0-0 after twelve wholly one-sided minutes.

Fergal Boland whipped over a fabulous point off the outside of the boot and James Carr left seven between them before Doherty – whose goalbound shot was deflected over the bar via an excellent Cadden save – and Lee Keegan – with the sweetest of strikes – made it 0-9 to no score with 20 minutes played.

Kevin McLoughlin’s quickfire brace piled on the pain and Regan’s fourth score (free) had twelve between the sides with ten minutes left before the break. Boland fisted the 14th Mayo point and the biggest roar of the day greeted New York’s opening point via Luke Kelly in the 30th minute.

Daniel McKenna added the losers' second, with substitute Conor Connolly prominent, but Darren Coen became the ninth Mayo man to raise a flag before Regan’s three-pointer at the end of the opening period meant there was no way back for the hosts, even though the winners registered eleven wides before the short whistle.

Rob Hennelly’s ‘45’ sailed between the posts four minutes after the restart and there were further scores from substitute Michael Plunkett and Regan (free) as Mayo led by 19 points with 20 minutes remaining. Substitute Ciaran Treacy cancelled out Kelly’s rather-classy third point from close to the sideline.

Sub Kevin Finn replied to Carr’s second point and there was a nice touch as orange-boot-sporting former Footballer of the Year Andy Moran, who made his championship debut at this venue in 2004, came off the bench for his 77th championship appearance.

Boland closed the scoring as the visitors cantered into the last four in Connacht and New York’s campaign once more ended at the first hurdle.

Mayo: Rob Hennelly (0-1); Colm Boyle, Brendan Harrison, Keith Higgins; Patrick Durcan (0-1), Lee Keegan (0-1), James McCormack (0-01); Matthew Ruane, Aidan O’Shea; Evan Regan (1-5, 4f), Jason Doherty (0-2), Fergal Boland (0-4); Kevin McLoughlin (0-2), Darren Coen (0-1), James Carr (0-1). Subs: Ciaran Treacy (0-1) for Doherty, David Drake for Higgins, Michael Plunkett for Keegan, Conor Diskin for D Coen, Stephen Coen for Ruane, Andy Moran for Carr

New York: Vinny Cadden; Michael Creegan, Gerard McCartan, Robert Gorman; Paddy Boyle, Michael Naughton, Matthe Queenan; Cathal Compton, Sean Hurley; Shane Hogan, Luke Kelly (0-2), Daniel McKenna (0-1); David Freedman, Niall Madine, Peter Hatzer. Subs: Conor Connolly for Naughton, Kevin Finn (0-1) for Creegan, Ryan Kerley for McCartan, Dylan McDermott for McKenna, Shane Slattery for Hogan, Tiernan Mathers for Madine.

Tweet

Most Read Stories