February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Flynn
Mayo 1-15, Down 0-4
The scoreboard at Gaelic Park was temporarily out of commission for Mayo’s match with Down in Junior A football on Sunday. That was probably a blessing in disguise. The way Mayo was scoring points, the scoreboard may have blown a fuse.
The red-and-green scored 16 times in 60 minutes on their way to a dominating victory.
“I thought the team did very well,” said Mayo’s Mick Higgins, who celebrated his Gaelic Park debut by scoring two points. “We kind of took it to them in the second half and really did a fine job.”
Mayo did a fine job of taking it to Down in the first half as well. They scored the first six points of the match, including two apiece for Marshall McAdoo and Colin Burke. McAdoo also sparkled defensively, clocking down a sure point off the foot of Down’s Gary Rooney.
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It was Rooney who finally broke the dry spell for his side, cutting Mayo’s lead to 0-6 to 0-1 by putting a fine ball on the foot of Ollie Crummie. Crummie pit it over the bar, somewhat atoning for several easy frees that he had missed earlier on.
Missing frees seemed to hallmark Down’s play in the first half, prompting Noel Morgan to chastise his team for their sloppy play. The stern talking had no effect on Down’s play. However, Rooney’s point early in the second half narrowed the gap to 0-7 to 0-2 in favor of Mayo, but Down would get no closer.
After Kenny Coyne scored his second point of the match, Burke’s goal made the score 1-8 to 0-2 and brought Down to its knees. Burke slammed the ball from a sharp angle past fallen keeper Jimmy Lee and Mayo was in the driver’s seat.
Down’s play became even more disorganized and Mayo coolly responded by scoring points. Rooney made a fine run through the Mayo defense, but passed the ball off instead of trying to score on his own. The pass was picked off and Niall Coogan converted on the other end to give Mayo a 1-10 to 0-2 lead.
The match got chippy later in the second half when Mayo’s rambunctious Ollie Flynn took exception to overzealous defending from Down’s Pete Clerkin and began throwing punches. A melee broke out but order was quickly restored and neither man was sent off.
Late in the match, Higgins found himself unguarded in front of the net but missed badly, sending the ball to the right of Down’s goal. It was the one blemish on an otherwise solid debut for the newcomer.
“I missed an open goal and that was terrible,” Higgins said.
Still, Mayo scored five of the final six points of the match, cementing a victory that was impressive even without Higgins’s missed goal
Mayo scorers: Burke 1-3, McAdoo 0-3, Coyne, Brown and Higgins 0-2, Carter, Coogan and Carey 0-1.
Down: Rooney 0-2, Crummie and Middleton 0-1.