Cavan came up big in the second-half to stun Mayo in Castlebar this afternoon and make a dream start to their All-Ireland senior football championship series campaign.

It finished 1-17 to 1-14 at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, where the hosts were second best for long spells ahead of grabbing a consolation goal through Aidan O’Shea right at the death.

Raymond Galligan’s side bounced back from last month’s disappointing Ulster quarter-final defeat to Tyrone by proving the bookmakers wrong and recording their county’s first championship win over Mayo since 1948.

After having trailed by 0-7 to 0-4 at the end of a first-half in which they lost young attacker Barry Donnelly to a serious looking leg injury, the Breffni men made the perfect start to the second-half with a Gerry Smith goal to square things up.

From there, the scores of Cormac O’Reilly, Padraig Faulkner and Oisin Kiernan helped the Blues create a four-point lead midway through the second period.

Matthew Ruane looked to get Mayo motoring with a point at the other end to end a mini drought, but, truth be told the Connacht runners up were flat looking on this occasion, and the visitors took full advantage.

With the wind firmly in their sails, points via Dara McVeety, Cian Lynch and returning star forward Paddy Lynch had the scoreboard reading 1-15 to 0-12 in the Blues' favour with eight minutes left in normal time.

Kevin McStay’s charges wouldn’t close the gap and the result see Group 1 of the Sam Maguire Cup race now blown wide open, with Cavan hosting Donegal in their next outing and Mayo set to come up against Tyrone.

Just catching the end of Joint Captain Ciaran Brady interview with RTE Sport. pic.twitter.com/oXIAMcNvKN

— Official Cavan GAA (@CavanCoBoardGaa) May 18, 2025

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