Connacht Under-21 FC Semi-finals/Mayo 1-13 Galway 0-9:Close friends and former Mayo playing colleagues John Maughan and Pat Holmes will go head-to -head in next Saturday's Cadbury's Connacht under-21 football championship final at McHale Park, Castlebar.
At times on Saturday Mayo looked like they might lose their provincial and national titles on their first outing, but Galway missed two crucial goal chances.
Then just before half-time Mayo substitute Brian Benson rounded Galway goalkeeper Adrian Faherty to score the vital goal which helped Mayo to a 1-5 to 0-4 interval lead.
Mayo senior goalkeeper Kenneth O'Malley got down low to save expertly from Cathal Kenny nine minutes after the break, and another Galway chance went abegging in the second half when Mark Gotsche was unlucky to watch his palmed attempt rebound off the crossbar.
These proved to be costly misses for Galway, and Mayo set about reasserting their superiority. Barry Moran, Tom Parsons, Tom Cunniffe, Aidan Campbell, Adrian McManamon and captain Mark Ronaldson were to the fore as Mayo regained a grip on the game for the closing quarter.
Four injury-time points from Parsons, Benson, McManamon, and Ronaldson sealed their win and now must face a Roscommon side that will include a number of players who won All-Ireland minor championship medals in stunning fashion last season.
"We made hard work of this win. We didn't play well for 35 or 40 minutes, but we still won well. We didn't get a lot of first-time ball into our full-forward line, and we didn't win enough breaking ball," said joint Mayo manager Noel Connelly.
MAYO: K O'Malley; A Joyce, G Cafferkey, D Kilcullen; C Barrett, T Cunniffe, C Boyle; B Moran, T Parsons (0-1); A Campbell (0-4, two frees), P Hanley (0-3, two frees), A McManamon (0-2); E Varley, A Hanley, M Ronaldson (0-2). Subs: B Benson (1-1) for E Varley (25 mins), J Burke for D Kilcullen (half-time).
GALWAY: A Faherty; A Glynn, P Gleeson, D Finnegan; G Bradshaw, G Higgins, C Bane; S Mannion, E Hoare (0-1); G O'Donnell, E Concannon (0-1); F Breathnach; G Rogan (0-4, three frees), C Kenny (0-3), F Burke. Subs: M Gotsche for F Burke (39 mins), D Reilly for G O'Donnell (51 mins), F Burke for D Reilly (58 mins).
Referee: O Kelly (Roscommon).
Goals from Eoin Duffy and Rodney Gorman helped Monaghan advance to the Ulster under-21 football final thanks to a convincing 2-8 to 0-4 victory over Fermanagh at Lisnaskea on Saturday.
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