Sport

Carlow given harsh lesson by Mayo

Mayo are unlikely to pick up two easier points in the National Football League

Mon Feb 09 1998 - 00:00

Mayo are unlikely to pick up two easier points in the National Football League. They moved to share joint top place with Laois following this easy, but not spectacular, win over Carlow at windswept Charlestown yesterday.

Not even the Mayo manager, John Maughan, troubled with back problems, was in attendance to see his side chisel out what was, in the end, a very easy win over a disappointing Carlow side who are obviously trying to regroup following the departure of Bobby Miller.

The Mayo backs were in control, particularly James Nallen, John Casey, Kenneth Mortimer and Fergal Costello, all of whom who were very much on top. The proof of the quality of the defending was Carlow's contribution of just one point from play. It came in the 20th minute from Benjy O'Brien.

Indeed, Mayo had not fared much better in the first 20 minutes, with just three points on the board, but they hit a good spell in the last 10 minutes to go in at the break 0-7 to 0-2 in a first half which was illuminated mostly by the point-taking ability of James Horan.

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Willie Quinlan had an early point for Carlow in the second half but the fact that Carlow did not score again until Johnny Nevin pointed just before the final whistle is a fair indication of how the game flowed in that second half.

It afforded them the unique opportunity to run the bench in the last 10 minutes with Kieran McDonald being introduced to kill the weeklong rumours that he had been making himself unavailable - he had failed to show for Connacht against Ulster and also in a challenge match for his county.

MAYO - P Burke; K Mortimer, P Holmes, F Costello (0-1); J Casey, J Nallen, N Connelly; P Fallon, D Brady; J Horan (0-4), L McHale (0-2), C McManamon; D Nestor, D Sweeney, M Sheridan (0-7). Subs: K McDonald for Sweeney; S Carey for McManamon; R Connelly for Costello.

CARLOW - J Kearns; N Sheedy, A Gorden, B Farrell; J Hughes, B Hannon, C Kelly; R Donnelly, S Kavanagh; N Doyle, J Nevin (0-1), P Nolan; D Treacy, B O'Brien (0-1), W Quinlan (0-2). Subs: P O'Dwyer for Hughes; D O'Donoghue for Nolan; N Bambrick for Sheedy.

Referee: J Curran (Tyrone).