Galway full back Declan Kyne taking control against Mayo forward Kevin McLoughlin.PHOTO: SPORTSFILE

Mayo shown the back door by spirited Tribesmen

Galway ........ 1-12
Mayo ............0-12

MAYO’S bid for a historic sixth Connaught senior football title in-a-row ended in Elverys MacHale Park, Castlebar, on Saturday evening when they lost out to arch rivals Galway in a game that never got the almost 22,000 crowd overly excited.

Mayo can have few complaints as Galway were by far the better team and were not flattered by their three-point winning margin.

For Mayo it now the qualifers in two weeks time. Their opponents won’t be known until the draw is made at headquarters on Monday.

Mayo who only played in fits and starts in the opening half were forced to dig deep to deal with the fired-up challenge from Galway. However, they did finish the half strongly to lead by 0-08 to 0-06 at the break.

This two-point could have been a lot more hadit not been for some poor shooting. In all they had 10 wides in the first 35 minutes.

On the resumption both sides exchanged points before Evan Regan and Cillian O’Connor put Mayo four in front by the 50th minute. But that was as good as it got for Mayo.

For the next 21 minutes they failed to raise a flag while Galway scored an unanswered 1-5 to turn a four-point deficit into a four-point lead.

The real turning point came in the 54th minute when Galway midfielder Tomas Flynn intercepted a short kickout from goalkeeper Robbie Hennelly and soloed through before drilling a powerful low shot to the back of the net.

In the closing stages Cillian O’Connor pulled one back from a pointed free but they never looked like getting through for the goal which would have forced a replay.

Galway: B. Power, D. Kyne, E. Kerin, D. Wynne, G. O’Donnell, L. Silke, G. Bradshaw, P. Conroy (0-02), T. Flynn (1-0), G. Sice (0-4, 3f), S. Walsh (0-1), J. Heaney (0-1), E. Brannigan (0-3), D. Comer, D. Cummins (0-1).
Subs: A. Varley for Walsh, P. Sweeney, S. Denvir for Heaney, E. Tierney for Flynn (black card).

Mayo: R. Hennelly, C. Boyle (0-1), K. Keane, B. Harrison, S. Coen (0-1), L. Keegan (0-1), P. Durcan, A. O’Shea, J. Gibbons, K. McLoughlin, C. O’Connor (0-6, 5f, 0-1 ‘45) , T. Parsons (0-1), E. Regan (0-1, f), J. Doherty (0-1), K. Higgins.
Subs: S. O’Shea for Gibbons, D. O’Connor for Harrison, D. Vaughan for Keane, A. Moran for Regan, A. Freeman for Parsons.

Referee: C. Lane (Cork).