Mayo League Game Breaffy vs Castlebar

 Breaffy 1-15

Castlebar Mitchels  1-18

Eoin Horkan 

Breaffy

A fine Cian Walsh solo goal late in the second half proved the pivotal difference in this top of the table clash on Saturday evening.

The visitors  and the side looking to take over top spot in the league table took early control of this tie when Cian Walsh raised the first orange flag of the day, within minutes there was a goal between them when Ruairí Burke fired over. The home side then wrestled back momentum and had the tie level l within eight minutes as Yousif Cogill slotted over before goalie Jack Livingstone fired over his first two point free. 

Moments later it was Castlebar who notched another two pointer when Ethan Gibbons opened his tally for the day followed by a Gavin Forry effort. The scores were coming in bursts as Breaffy maged to narrow the gap to one with efforts from Pierce Deane before Conor O’Shea split  the posts. The final two scores of the opening quarter came from Gibbons and midfielder Paddy Heneghan. 

Just as it looked like the visitors were starting to pull away Livingstone made no mistake with another long range effort before Deane and Joe Mellett added to their sides tally. With the tie now level Mitchels pulled one ahead when Ultan O’ Reilly broke through to slot over.  The game suddenly swung back in the home sides favour  when a long ball found Conor O’ Shea who rifled one into the back of the net.

With half time looming it turned into the Gibbons show as he added four more points to his sides tally with an effort from play before two frees one inside the arc and the other a monster from outside. These scores were cancelled out by Rory Martin leaving the sides deadlocked at the interval.

In almost a carbon copy of the opening half the scoring began with a two pointer from the aforementioned Martin before Gibbons cancelled this out up the other end. This would be the sharpshooter last action as in the process of scoring he would injure his hamstring. It was the Mitchels full forward line that were causing a lot of problems and a Conor Stenspn score minutes later meant all three of them had now scored from play.

As the opening quarter drew to a close Conor Beirne won a ball in his own back line before marauding up the field eventually finding substitute Ben Murphy to slot over. The third or the moving quarter proved vital in this tie as a close in free from Forry followed by a fantastic solo run moments later raised two white flags before a third by substitute Calum Filan.

The final nail in Breaffy’s coffin came when Cian Walsh slalomed  his way through the defence before firing home.The final score of the game was a final two. The gap was narrowed right at the end with another Livisgtone two pointer but this wasn't enough for the home side as the final whistle caught up to them 

Breaffy: Jack Livingstone(0-6 3 (2pfs) ; Conor Melly, Mark Dervan, Conor Beirne; Yousif Coghill (0-1), Robbie Fadden, Daire Morrin; Niall Carter, Oisin Tunney; Paul McDermott, Pierce Deane(0-2 1f), Oisin Costello; Joe Mellett(0-1), Conor O’ Shea (1-1), Rory Martin(0-3) 

Subs Used: John Deane for Oisin Costello (40), Ben Murphy (0-1) for Rory Martin (42), Mark Ward for Paul McDermott (52)

Castlebar: Rory Byrne; Brian McDonnell, Mark Dolan, Johnny Maughan; Ruairí Burke (0-1), John MacMonagle, Jack O’ Reilly;Shane Cunningham, Paddy Heneghan (0-1);Anthony O’Boyle, Ultan O’Reilly (0-1), Gavin Forry(0-3 1f); Cian Walsh (1-2) (2pp), Conor Stenson(0-1), Ethan Gibbons (0-9 1f (3 -2pfs).

Subs Used: Mark Cunningham for Ethan Gibbons(inj (42), Fergal Durkan for Conor Stenson (44), Calum Filan(0-1) for Anthony O’Boyle (48), John Kennedy for Paddy Heneghan (52).

Referee: Kevin Connelly