Mayo exploit Monaghan indiscipline to register 13-point win

Mayo 3-15

Monaghan 0-11

Monaghan saw red at MacHale Park, Castlebar, where the visitors finished with 13 players in a match that turned ugly with a number of skirmishes, a plethora of yellow cards, along with two reds, and one black card for a player from both sides thrown into the mix.

The game looked set to be close given the closeness of the exchanges in the first half. Monaghan were trailing by just two points when Stephen Gollogly was brandished a straight red card by referee Rory Hickey after consulting with the linesman. Not many in a crowd of close on 9,000 knew exactly why the Monaghan man had seen red, and the player in question remonstrated vigorously with the officials before his departure.

Monaghan might have lived with one man down as they had a strong wind at their backs in the second half but they could hardly afford losing a second player to a straight red, and when Ryan Wiley got his marching orders for a challenge on Mark Ronaldson, there were still 20 minutes of the game remaining.

In fairness, Mayo had taken control of the game before the second red card was issued and thanks to a well-taken goal by Aidan O’Shea, 15 minutes into the second half, they had gone into a 1-13 to 0-8.

With 13 men playing against 15, the spaces began to appear for Mayo to exploit, and they exacted the maximum retribution with both substitutes Alan Freeman and Mikey Sweeney finding the net, the latter firing home from close range in injury-time.

The blanket defence used by Tyrone to suffocate Mayo in their only league defeat was not in evidence in this game and, in fact, the first half exchanges of an open game were close, the sides level on three occasions. Monaghan took the lead twice before points from Ronaldson, Cillian O' Connor (free) and Jason Doherty saw Mayo kicked two clear on 27 minutes.

Gollogly pulled back a superb point for Monaghan before his red card was issued for an off-the-ball incident. He had only left the pitch when he was followed by Mayo’s Seamus O’Shea, who picked up a black card for what appeared to be an accidental trip, but a trip it was, as the match official began feel the wrath of both sets of supporters who felt those two early decisions were harsh.

By the break, Mayo had kicked three clear – 0-9 to 0-6 – Cillian O’Connor with his fourth free of the half and the best score of the half from Kevin McLoughlin.

An early second-half free from O'Connor had Mayo ahead by four, but two rapid points from Daniel McKenna and Paul Finlay had Monaghan within two and seemingly game on.

But Mayo were gradually getting on top and they stretched the lead to four again thanks to points from Diarmuid O’Connor and Ronaldson before that goal from Aiden O’Shea had the gap at eight.

The second red card left Mayo with acres of space to exploit as the game deteriorated. A plethora of yellow cards to both sides followed and Monaghan's Dermot Malone was given a black card for blatantly pulling down a Mayo player off the ball.

MAYO: R Hennelly; T Cunniffe, K Keane, K Higgins; L Keegan, S Coen, P Durcan; D Vaughan (0-1), S O'She; K McLoughlin (0-1), A O'Shea (1-3), D O'Connor (0-1), M Ronaldson (0-3), C O'Connor (0-5, four frees ), J Doherty (0-1). Subs: D Kirby for S O'Shea (bc 29 mins), C Boyle for Vaughan (h-t), A Freeman (1-0) for C O'Connor (56 mins), M Forde for K McLoughlin (66 mins), M Sweeney (1-0) for M Ronaldson (64 mins), G Cafferkey for Keane (66 mins).

MONAGHAN: R Beggan (0-1, free); C Boyle, D Wylie, R Wylie; D Mone, F Kelly, K Duffy; N McAdam, P Finlay (0-2, 1 free); K Hughes (0-2), S Gallogly (0-1), R McEnespie; D Malone, D McKenna (0-4, 2 frees), O Duffy. Subs: V Corey for F Duffy (34 mins), D Hughes for O Duffy (h-t), P Donaghy for D Malone (bc 39 mins). K O'Connell for F Kelly (50 mins), P Meegan (0-1, free) for D McKenna (66 mins), P McGuigan for C Boyle (68 mins).

Referee: R Hickey (Clare).