Mayo 1-12 Derry 0-15
[Derry won on penalties 4-3]
Derry did something of a Lazarus in McHale Park on Saturday night to resurrect their All-Ireland chances after having a nightmare late Spring and early summer of reverses in the Ulster championship and subsequent All-Ireland league format. They will meet Kerry next Sunday, at 3:15 p.m. at Croke Park, while Ulster rivals Donegal take on Louth immediately beforehand at the same venue. The other last-8 games will take place at Croke Park on the previous day, Saturday: Armagh vs. Roscommon, at 4 p.m., and Dublin vs. Galway at 6:15 p.m.
Scraping a win against Westmeath the previous week, Derry went west to take on high-riding Mayo in their own backyard and showed great guts and resilience to fight back in normal time when they were seconds away from defeat. They were then pegged back after leading by three points in extra time before again showing nerves of steel to win the penalty shoot out on a 4-3 scoreline.
However, after playing with such intensity for close on 90 minutes including added times, it will take a supreme effort to turn around within a week to face Kerry and hope to bring the same energy and freshness which they displayed against Mayo.
This was true knock-out fare with the needle oscillating one way and then the other as first it looked like Mayo, a point ahead, would win the tie in normal time only for defender Chrissy McKaigue to fist over an equalizer before Mayo reeled in a three-point Derry lead in extra time to fight back to parity after 90 minutes plus injury time of play for a penalty shoot out.
The 14,000 fans were on tenterhooks for a further 10 minutes or so until the issue was decided with Derry’s Conor Doherty shooting home his side’s fourth successful spot kick to win the series 4-3 and advance to meet the Kingdom this weekend.
And so Derry have kept their season alive while Mayo can only rue the fact that they have discovered the unsavory habit of turning apparent victories into defeats as happened when losing a two-point lead to Galway in the Connacht final, again a point ahead of Dublin the previous week to this when a win would have seen them automatically qualify for this weekend’s quarter finals but instead they succumbed to another late sucker punch with Cormac Costello fisting over an equalizer.
They were in a similar healthy position in McHale Park on Saturday when a point up they had possession but instead of holding onto it, defender Sam Callinan went for glory but his fisted effort for a score to give his side a two point cushion went wide.
This allowed Derry to regain possession from the kickout and they worked the ball upfield for Conor Glass to have a shot for the equalizer. His effort hit the post but Derry were first to the rebound and the ball was worked for the ageless McKaigue to flick over the point that extended the game into extra time.
Earlier a Ryan O’Donoghue penalty had given the hosts a 1-8 to 0-10 lead five minutes into added time and Kevin McStay’s men seemed set to advance save for the decision to get another score in the bag.
It was Derry who were clearly the better side in extra time with Brendan Rogers back to his best finding the range with Ethan Doherty also slotting over twice to give his side what looked like a winning lead of 0-14 to 1-9 at the interval.
Credit to Mayo, who had been poor in the first half of normal time in only scoring three points, they rallied again and with great scores from sub Paul Towey and Conor Loftus, they were back in the mix.
Shane McGuigan came out on an indifferent spell to hit a fine point and when Ryan O’Donoghue missed a free, it could have spelt curtains for the Westerners until Jordan Flynn showed great courage to land yet another equalizer in this game at the end of time.
Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor, Diarmuid O’Connor and Conor Loftus all scored their penalties for Mayo but sub Paul Towey and sharpshooter Ryan O’Donoghue both missed.
Derry’s Ethan Doherty was the only one of his crew to be errant from the spot as McGuigan, Conor Glass and Ciaran McFaul all struck home leaving it to Conor Doherty to finish the job.
This loss sees Mayo out of this stage of the championship for only the second time in 13 seasons.
Derry: O Lynch; C McCluskey, C McKaigue (0-1), D Baker; G McKinless (0-1), E McEvoy, C Doherty; C Glass, B Rogers (0-2); E Doherty (0-2), E Bradley, C McFaul; P Cassidy, S McGuigan (0-4, 2fs), L Murray (0-5, 1 mark) Subs: E Mulholland for Bradley (44); D Gilmore for Doherty, C Murphy for Cassidy (both 67); N Toner for Murray, R Forbes for Baker (both 70); D Baker for Forbes, P Cassidy for Murphy (both 70, ET); C Doherty for Baker (83).
Mayo: C Reape; R Brickenden, D McBrien, D McHugh; J Coyne, S Callinan (0-1), E McLaughlin; J Carney, M Ruane; S Coen, D McHale, J Flynn (0-2); A O’Shea (0-1), R O’Donoghue (1-4, 1-0p, 0-3fs), T Conroy (0-2) Subs: C Loftus (0-1) for McLaughlin (half-time); D O’Connor for McHale (53); E Hession for Coyne (58); C O’Connor for Ruane (67); B Tuohy for O’Shea (70); P Towey (0-1) for Brickenden (80); M Plunkett for Callinan (87).
Ref: B Cawley (Kildare).
Roscommon 0-14; Tyrone 0-12
Start as you mean to go on - that was the Rossies mantra in Healy Park on Saturday when they disregarded the history books to record their first championship victory at this level against the 2021 All Ireland champions in their own backyard on Saturday evening.
Davy Burke’s men hit the ground running and had built up a five-point advantage in the first half before Tyrone woke up and found themselves in a real testing situation.
In essence, the lads in the primrose and blue were more energetic and showed a great attitude of fighting with discipline for every ball from first whistle to last.
Not for the first time in their careers, the Connacht men can thank the twin towers of Donie Smith and Diarmuid Murtagh who both worked their socks off and delivered four points each as massive contribution to this magnificent win in the annals of their county.
Senie O’Donnell settled the home side with the first score of the day but if Tyrone fans thought about sitting back and enjoying an easy run against their opponents, they were quickly disabused of such notions as the visitors landed the next six scores with Smith to the fore in this period.
By half-time, the whiff of an upset was very much in the air as the hosts trailed by six points, 0-3 to 0-9. Manager Brian Dooher saw his side was in trouble and rang the changes for the second half with big Conn Kilpatrick, Peter Hate and Eoin McElholm thrown into the fray.
McElholm made an immediate impression by scoring with his first touch and then Darragh Canavan landed a brace to put the game back into the melting pot.
However with Roscommon prepared to work up and back and happy to get 14 men behind the ball, they made chances almost impossible for the Red Hand side with Canavan the exception in eluding the packed defense to land another point.
Roscommon's Robbie Dolan, Daire Cregg and Niall Higgins tackle Darragh Canavan of Tyrone Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Leah Scholes
Roscommon's Robbie Dolan, Daire Cregg and Niall Higgins make life difficult for Darragh Canavan of Tyrone. [Inpho/Leah Scholes]
At the other end Roscommon showed great efficiency by scoring when given the chance to keep three points ahead.
Darren McCurry converted frees to chip at the lead but every time they found a response with Murtagh landing a great score to underscore their belief in causing the upset.
Michael McKernan narrowed the gap to a point but the visitors didn’t panic and Daire Cregg landed an outrageous score to give them sufficient breathing space to get over the line.
Said Davy Burke afterwards: “It’s huge. In fairness to those lads, they needed a result like today. They needed to go out and do that – perform, and beat a top team – and that’s what they’ve done today.
“We’ll go to Croke Park full of confidence. Two wins in a row, having lost a number of games in a row. But we were playing a very high level of football for a very long time, and I think that went a little bit under the radar, the level of football we were playing.
“We’ve been disappointed with results lately, but we knew we were knocking on the door. We played Dublin and Mayo five times this year - they’re not bad teams! I think a lot of people missed that; we didn’t miss it, though. We knew the level we were operating at had to get better, and I think we got better at a few things.”
Their reward for such valor is another big game against Ulster opposition and they will face to Croke Park thinking they have every bit as good a chance of victory over Armagh as they had against Tyrone.
Roscommon: C Carroll; N Higgins; B Stack; R Dolan; D Murray; R Fallon; E McCormack; E Smith; U Harney; D Ruane; D Murtagh (0-4); S Cunnane; D Cregg (0-3); C Cox (0-3, 0-1f); D Smith (0-4) Subs: R Daly for Ruane (43'); C Lennon for McCormack (47'); N Daly for Harney (58'); K Doyle for Murtagh (69).
Tyrone: N Morgan; M McKernan (0-1); P Hampsey; N Devlin; B Cullen; M Donnelly; M O’Neill (0-1m); B Kennedy; C McShane; C Daly; R Canavan; N McCarron; D McCurry (0-5, 0-4f); D Canavan (0-3, 0-1f); S O’Donnell (0-1) Subs: C Kilpatrick for O’Neil (h-t); P Harte for Cullen (h-t); E McElholm (0-01) for R Canavan (h-t); K McGeary for Daly (58'); S O’Hare for McShane (63').
Ref: D Coldrick (Meath).
All Ireland Quarter-Final Draw
Dublin v Galway
Kerry v Derry
Donegal v Louth
Armagh v Roscommon
Tailteann Cup Semi-Finals
Laois 3-12; Antrim 1-13
Down 1-20; Sligo 2-15
All-Ireland Minor Football Semi-final
Derry 1-13; Kerry 1-12
Armagh 0-16; Mayo 1-6
All Ireland Preliminary Football Quarter-Finals
Galway 0-14; Monaghan 0-11
Roscommon 0-14; Tyrone 0-12
Derry 0-15 ; Mayo 1-12
(AET - Derry win 4-3 on pens)
Louth 1-9; Cork 1-8
All Ireland SH Quarter-Finals
Cork 0-26; Dublin 0-21
Clare 2-28; Wexford 1-19
Spot-on Derry send Mayo packing and book Kerry date
Derry 0-15; Mayo 1-12
(AET - Derry win 4-3 on pens)
