Mayo's grand plan very much coming together

Mayo 0-20 Dublin 0-8:UNSUSPECTING DUBLIN walked down a blind alley and were mugged by Mayo at McHale Park on Saturday evening, where the All-Ireland champions never came to grips with a fired-up Mayo team who are now back in the National Football League frame following this unexpected win.

This round-two fixture had to be abandoned back in February when fog descended on the pitch at half-time but there was another blinding presence in this game which saw Mayo take Dublin apart and dominate virtually every sector before a crowd of around 12,000.

The vibes from the two managers could hardly be more contrasting as Pat Gilroy accepted Dublin’s poor performance got what it deserved.

“They took their scores very well and they were clinical. If we don’t have that we’re a poor team and that’s happened to us three times now. We’ve no choice but to pick it up. We have to regroup, sit down on Tuesday night, and sort out a lot of things. If we continue that we won’t be long in the championship either.

“Nobody in there could have seen that coming. But we were even worse than we were against Down in terms of our application. As a group we need to look at the reasons why that happened. We clearly have to eliminate it. We never got near the pitch of that game at all. From start to finish there was only one team in it,” was his honest assessment.

Mayo manager James Horan had been wondering last week after losing narrowly to Cork what all the fuss was about as he refused to panic and said the team was sticking by what he termed the “bigger plan”: “We were looking for a performance from today’s game and thankfully we got it. We played well. We played some really good stuff. I’m delighted with the win. We’ll take it, move on, train on Tuesday and get ready for Kerry next weekend.”

While the dismissal of two Dublin players, one on a straight red early in the second half, had arguably a bearing on the final margin, it certainly never influenced the final result as Mayo, under pressure themselves on foot of some poor recent results, which saw them lose three games on the bounce, produced the ideal response ahead of their final game away to Kerry.

When first-half substitute Paul Flynn was dispatched six minutes into the second half on a straight red after an off-the-ball altercation on the ground with Donal Vaughan, Mayo were 11 points clear, having extended their interval lead of 0-13 to 0-5 with three points at the start of the second half, two from the inspirational centre-back Vaughan.

By the time Dublin lost Diarmuid Connolly on a second yellow after another off-the-ball incident reported by the linesman, the All-Ireland champions had run out of time, space and ideas as Mayo’s all-time top scorer, Conor Mortimer, who, on the night, surpassed the record held by Joe Corcoran, finished on a high with eight points, his final long-range free giving Mayo a 20-point tally which just might make the difference if, as seems likely, the fate of some teams could yet be decided on score difference.

While Dublin were without a number of their star players their lethargy in the first half in particular could hardly be excused and it was one of those evenings when most of Stephen Cluxton’s poorly directed kick-outs ended up in the arms of Mayo men.

James Horan’s men had made their intentions known from the start and they never let Dublin settle, Michael Conroy providing two early points from play to suggest there were weakness there to be exploited in that makeshift Dublin defence.

Little did the home side think they would have this game in the bag at the interval as an inspired Alan Dillon and Mortimer kicked some terrific points from distance.

MAYO: D Clarke; K Keane L K Higgins; L Keegan, D Vaughan (0-2), C Boyle; A O’Shea (0-1), D Geraghty, K McLoughlin, A Moran, A Dillon (0-4), C Mortimer (0-8, 0-6 frees), B Moran (0-1), M Conroy (0-4). Subs: J Doherty for Moran (58 mins), P Gardiner for Vaughan (63 mins), C O’Connor for Conroy (63 mins), J Gibbons for Geraghty (66 mins), A Campbell for Dillon (66 mins).

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Daly, R O’Carroll, G Brennan (0-1), J McCarthy, C O’Sullivan, K Nolan, R McConnell, MD MacAuley; P Brogan, P Andrews (0-1), B Cullen (0-2),T Quinn (0-2, frees), D Connolly (0-1, free), K McManamon. Subs: P Flynn for P Brogan (26 mins), C Dias for McCarthy (35 mins), E Fennell for McConnell (35 mins), D Kelly for Quinn (46 mins), D Rock (0-1) for Andrews (53 mins).

Referee: J Gilmartin (Sligo).

Final group round – Sunday: Laois v Down, Portlaoise, 2.30; Kerry v Mayo, Austin Stack Park, 2.30; Cork v Dublin, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 2.30pm; Donegal v Armagh, Ballybofey, 2.30pm.

Format: Top four sides contest Division One semi-finals (1 v 4, 2 v 3); The bottom two teams relegated to Division Two; Where counties finish level on points:

(i) If only two teams are involved, the outcome of the group meeting of the two teams; (ii) Scoring difference.