Cillian O’Connor was the hero of a Connacht SFC final comeback that saw Mayo snatch the provincial crown from holders Roscommon’s grasp on Sunday.
In wet, wild and windy conditions at Dr Hyde Park, James Horan’s men overcame a four-point half-time deficit to win out by 0-13 to 0-11. Previously inspired by Donal Shine (who matched O’Connor’s 0-8), the Rossies wilted after the break as last year's minor O’Connor kicked a glut of frees, leaving two of his team-mates to then split the posts with the winning scores.
After watching their minors beat Galway in the earlier final, the wind aided Roscommon in taking the game to Mayo from the off. Shine sent over the first point of the day from a lengthy free amidst two wides from Kevin Higgins and one from Conor Devaney. It was 0-2 to 0-0, however, when Senan Kilbride pounced on a careless loss of possession from Donal Vaughan and fired over Robert Hennelly’s bar.
O'Connor tied things up with two easy frees either side of a Vaughan wide, but a Shine ’45 and a sweet effort from the same man from play soon had the Rossies clear on double scores. They then made it treble scores, with Cathal Cregg collecting a Mayo kickkout, bounding forward and fisting over, and Shine pointing a great one over the shoulder.
Mayo had gone some 16 minutes without scoring now but they finally responded after that latest Shine success, with Andy Moran brilliantly finding range for their first score from play. Another easy O’Connor effort further reduced the deficit, only for Roscommon defender Donal Ward to get forward to finish off a well-worked move for 0-7 to 0-4.
Two classy Shine frees then had Fergal O’Donnell’s men a healthy five points clear, but the last score of the first half would come from Mayo’s Kevin McLoughlin after O’Connor used a free to create a more scoreable chance.
The interval gap of 0-9 to 0-5 remained when O’Connor took too long to take an early second half free, but he made amends when clinically dispatching his next set piece. Shine created nothing with his next effort at the other end, meaning there were only two points in it all of a sudden as Alan Dillon sensibly kicked over with a sight of the target on 45 minutes.
Mayo’s stronger start to the second period was emphasised when O’Connor kicked over again to put just a point between them, but the gap should have been back at four minutes later. Instead it was just two as Shine collected Kilbride’s dropping ball and turned to swing a shot over Hennelly’s bar when the effort really should have gone under it.
Such scores were now extremely rare for the fading Rossies though as Mayo seized more momentum via another carelessly conceded free to O’Connor. A bad wide from Alan Freeman then halted their charge but nothing was stopping O’Connor now as he kicked from the hand from 45 metres out to make it 0-10 apiece with just under 12 minutes to play.
Six minutes later he kicked over his eighth successful free of the day as Mayo led for the first time. Roscommon were desperate now as the wind took a long range Shine effort wide and delayed another effort that dropped into the danger area, only for Richie Feeney to take command and clear. Another Shine chance was then caught under the crossbar by Hennelly, whose opposite number Geoffrey Claffey had no such luck when he could not keep sub Peadar Gardiner’s effort from making it over at the other end.
Shine kicked only Roscommon’s second point of the second half with stoppage-time already well underway, but there was no indication of an equaliser arriving as, instead, another Mayo replacement, Enda Varley, finished O’Donnell’s boys off to seal the Mayo success.
The Nestor Cup winners now have an All-Ireland quarter-final to look forward to. Roscommon will face either Tyrone or Armagh in the qualfiiers.