Kildare ladies no match for rampant Mayo

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Mayo 2-15

Kildare 0-5

Mayo had sixteen points to spare over Kildare in the LGFA Senior Championship clash at Ballina on Saturday.
Even the battle of team managers and Ballina natives Diane O’Hora and Liam McHale on the sideline evaporated from the minute Mayo hit their stride in a game that was effectively over at half-time.

The difference between a nine-point loss to All-Ireland senior champions Dublin and a 16-point win over All-Ireland Intermediate champions Kildare is hard to compare.

Mayo had seven different players on the scoring sheet as they inflicted a comprehensive win over the visitors.

As a collective, Mayo proved that you can play your own game and stop the other team playing at the same time.

Through a combination of silly give-away balls and sturdy Mayo defending, nearly all of Kildare’s attacks foundered in the first half where an early Aoife Rattigan skyscraper was their only score.

It was only through the grace of God that Kildare didn’t ship a goal to a home team that ran at them in droves and were 0-8 0-1 up after 28 minutes. It certainly wasn’t through good defending or tough tackling.

“Where’s the bite?” an irked Diane O’Hora asked of her players at one point.

Mayo shifted up through the gears until a seemingly inevitable goal which began when Sinéad Walsh was gifted a pass from the opposition before kicking a clever ball into Maria Cannon. The Burrishoole woman off-loaded to Lisa Cafferky, who had a bit of work to do, but still found the net.

Two frees from the deadly-accurate Cannon left the scores at 1-10 to 0-1 at half-time and left Kildare as good as beaten.
Either through complacency from Mayo, or a change of tactics from the Lilywhites, Kildare’s fortunes improved in the third quarter.

Indeed, but for several outstanding saves from Laura Brennan, Mayo would surely have leaked a goal.

In the end, Kildare’s only consecutive scores in the entire game were a trio of points from Aoife Rattigan (2) and Neasa Dooley between the third and fourth quarters.

Had they been a bit more ruthless, Mayo could have added another goal.

Westport’s Aoife Staunton was excellent in the Mayo forward line, working herself to a standstill and linking up several moves.
Both teams, to their credit, gave the few hundred spectators value for money and kept the chances coming thick and fast.
Nothing got past Laura Brennan, bar a massive Neasa Dooley free from beyond the 45.

Mayo still had unfinished business heading into the final minute, which saw Staunton tee up fellow sub’ Sinéad Cafferky for a well-taken goal.

Kildare now face an almost impossible task against Dublin in their final group game this weekend in Manguard Park while Mayo can now look forward to another All-Ireland quarter-final — most likely in an away venue - in the first week in July.

MAYO: L Brennan; S Lally, N O’Malley, K Sullivan; E Ronayne, C Durkan (0-1), D Caldwell; A Geraghty, E Murray; F McLaughlin (0-2), A Gough (0-3), F McHale; S Walsh (0-2), M Cannon (0-6, 5f), L Cafferky (1-1). Subs: A Staunton for McHale (37), S Cafferky (1-0) for L Cafferky (53), M Sheridan for Gough (55), C Henry for Sullivan (55).

KILDARE: A Dunlea; F Troute, A Clifford, A Reynolds; L Gilbert, R Sargent, L Murtagh; G Clifford, C Sulivan; T Duggan, N Dooley (0-2, 1f), L Doran; E Dowling, A Rattigan (0-1), R Byrne (0-2, 1f) Subs: E O’Toole for G Clifford (ht), N Farrelly for Sullivan (ht), L Shaw for Doran (ht), H Tyrrell for Rattigan (37), Z Brierty for Duggan (39).

REFEREE: Maggie Farrelly (Cavan)