Mayo pip Offaly

An exciting match at O’Connor Park, Tullamore, resulted in a one-point win for Mayo, who moved into second place in the Division 1A table.

Mayo 2-12
Offaly 2-11

The victory sees the 2004 All-Ireland finalists move into second place in Division 1A.
Mayo were much more ruthless in front of the posts early on and raced into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes. This in spite of the teams having carved out six scoring chances apiece.

Conor Mortimer got three of those early Mayo points from frees, while Alan Dillon chipped in with the other two. But wasteful Offaly, despite breaking even territorially, registered only a 20-metre Colm Quinn free in the first quarter.

Suddenly, however, the Faithfuls found their composure to hit 1-2 without reply and steal into a 1-3 to 0-5 lead. James Coughlan got the points after 22 and 23 minutes before John Reynolds made sure of his third goalscoring opportunity of the afternoon to put the home side ahead.

Alan Dillon then had a goal disallowed for Mayo but a Ciaran McDonnell point gave the Connacht county a bit of cheer. Roy Malone swapped points with Dillon to leave the teams level at the short whistle, 1-4 to 0-7.

When Mayo got 1-2 in four second half minutes, it looked as if they would pull clear, but Offaly replied dramatically with four points on the bounce courtesy of Reynolds, Colm Quinn, Neville Coughlan and Ciaran McManus to leave the sides level with about ten minutes remaining.

John Prenty punched to the Offaly net to land the decisive goal of the second half and, thanks to that score, it was 2-12 to 1-11 with only two minutes left.

Ballina goalkeeper David Clarke - one of the real stars of the show - brought off his third magnificent save of the match late on but not even the heroic Offaly ’keeper could prevent Colm Quinn’s piledriver from bulging the back of the net.

But it was too little too for the home side, who can consider themselves unfortunate not to have got at least a share of the spoils. For Mayo, this is their third win out of four games and they’re looking good for a place in the knockouts.