Galway edge Connacht final thriller to claim four-in-a-row over bitter rivals Mayo
IN A game of moments, Galway made the big ones count as they edged another Connacht final classic against Mayo.
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Galway captain Seán Kelly lifts the Nestor Cup after his side's victory in the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship final vs Mayo
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Paul Conroy of Galway tussles with Mayo's Donnacha McHugh in a tense and thrilling Connacht SFC final
It looked like curtains when
But they nearly produced a miracle after an epic second half performance that just fell short, but boss Kevin McStay knows moral victories mean nothing when these two go to war.
He said: 'Galway are the champions and we're not, we have to suck that up now and get on with it.
'But that's our job is to kind of put a bit of shape on the next fortnight, we were going to have to play the round robin anyway.
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"It's not like if we won, somebody was going to give us a pass to the quarter-finals.
'So win or lose, this was facing us and I suppose I'll take a little bit of comfort from the fact that we've done this, this is our third year now to face into the same circumstances.
'We don't have a provincial title and maybe take some solace from the Armagh effort, this time last year they'd lost a very tight Ulster final. Then, they were able to resurrect their season and keep it going obviously.
'Unless I believe in what we are doing I can hardly sell that to the players but I don't have to because I know they will react.
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'But they are so sore now and disappointed and it is a tough dressing room right now. We have only ourselves to blame about how this is.
'We got into a position to win it, we didn't win it and we need to reflect on that now and see can we improve, and we need to improve fairly quickly at seeing out these games.
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'Galway have the cup now, we had one shot to draw it, that is how close this bloody thing is, but close is no good.'
The Tribes looked home and hosed at the break as star hitmen Shane Walsh (back) and Damien Comer (hamstring) looked on from the stand - but Mayo's revival made for a classic.
Two-pointers from Matthew Ruane and O'Donoghue reeled Galway in before Davitt Neary and Darren McHale got them back within one in a flash.
But as they stared each other down, Mayo blinked first. They never took the lead in the entire second half, and Connor Gleeson made sure of that when he got a touch on O'Donoghue's free from outside the arc on 53 minutes, reducing its worth to one.
A frantic finale followed, and Galway fluffed a huge goal chance when Liam Silke played in Cathal Sweeney but the Salthill man lost his footing and Stephen Coen cleared the danger.
Cillian McDaid led Galway's final charge, and scored their first point in 10 minutes to ease the pressure when Matthew Thompson put it on a plate for him.
With the game level and an hour on the clock, a disastrous Colm Reape kickout went straight into Rob Finnerty's hands and Rory Brickenden was black carded for hauling him down.
Playing with 14 men for the final 10 minutes took its toll against a Galway team gunning for Sam, and their extra bit of quality prevailed.
Finnerty scored the resulting free and the brilliant Paul Conroy quickly followed suit from play to bring his tally to 0-7.
Gleeson denied Enda Hession a certain goal at the other end, before Dylan McHugh somehow blocked Paul Towie's effort a minute later when he pulled the trigger. Big moments.
With their tails up, Liam Ó Conaghaile got Galway's insurance score to put them two ahead as the buzzer sounded and he lapped it up in front of the 27,137 gripped by the game.
Mayo craved an equaliser that never came, as Matthew Ruane's wide signalled another summer without a Connacht title since their last in 2021.
Padraic Joyce's men enter the All-Ireland series group of death along with Dublin, Derry and whoever loses Saturday's Ulster final between Armagh and Donegal - but beating their arch rivals was top priority yesterday morning.
Reigning Footballer of the Year Conroy lorded Castlebar with 0-6 in the first half as Johnny McGrath held O'Donoghue to two scores from open play in a gripping duel.
Galway led by eight at the break thanks to Conroy's two-point treble and Matthew Tierney's penalty after McHale's goal on seven minutes gave Mayo a dream start.
Davitt Neary split open the Tribe defence when he danced around Jack Glynn, and fed the Knockmore man to lash home despite Johnny McGrath's presence on the line.
It fired them 1-2 to 0-2 ahead, but they failed to score for the next 27 minutes as Galway slowly pulled away with wind advantage.
Conroy had already boomed over his first orange flag from 45 metres out, and swiftly followed up from a free after McHale's goal to silence the home support.
Mayo struggled to feed the ball into Aidan O'Shea, who was well marshalled by Sean Fitzgerald.
Conroy fired over on the double again when his brilliant dummy fooled Jack Carney and he planted over to spark a 1-6 scoring spree.
Matthew Thompson, McDaid, Sean Kelly and Finnerty followed suit as Jordan Flynn and Reape fired wide at the other end.
The Tribes won a penalty 10 minutes before the break when Céin Darcy sent McGrath through on goal.
His shot was saved by Reape, but the Mayo stopper was penalised for a foot-block and Tierney fired home from the spot to make it 1-10 to 1-2 before a sizzling second half for the ages.
Losing to the old enemy at home was far from ideal, and there was far more pressure on Mayo to win after unconvincing performances against Sligo and Leitrim beforehand.
An All-Ireland series group alongside the Ulster champions, Tyrone and Cavan awaits - but MacHale Park was maroon and white.
MAYO 1-15
GALWAY 1-17
MAYO: C Reape 0-1 45; J Coyne, D McHugh, E Hession; R Brickenden, D McBrien, S Coen; D O'Connor, M Ruane 0-2, 1tp; D Neary 0-1, D McHale 1-2; J Flynn; A O'Shea, J Carney, R O'Donoghue 0-9, 6f, 1tp.
Subs: S Callinan for McBrien (blood) 10mins; P Towey for O'Connor HT, F Boland for Neary 61, F Kelly for McHale 66
GALWAY: C Gleeson; J McGrath, S Fitzgerald, J Glynn; D McHugh, S Mulkerrin, L Silke; P Conroy 0-7, 2tp, 1tpf, S Kelly 0-1; C Darcy, J Maher, C McDaid 0-2; M Tierney 1-1, 1pen, R Finnerty 0-4, 3f, M Thompson 0-1.
Subs: C Sweeney for Maher HT; K Molloy for Fitzgerald 41, C Hernon for Mulkerrin 49, P Cooke for Sweeney 61, L Ó Conghaile 0-1 for Thompson 66
REFEREE: P Neilan (Roscommon)
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