An off-colour Mayo managed to turn around a six-point second half deficit to beat Kildare by five this evening and reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
As the Irish Examiner reports, Kildare were six to the good up to the 44th minute and were still five ahead when Enda Hession made what seemed a goal-denying save from Daniel Flynn.
Mayo made a lot of that lay-off and were three back when referee Derek O’Mahoney made a strange call in favour of Mayo as it appeared Oisín Mullin had pulled back Ben McCormack before the Kildare forward had touched the ball on the ground.
The margin was three again in the 62nd minute when Mullin completed a sloppy one-two with Pádraig O’Hora and convincingly finished a goal to level the qualifier. Three minutes later, Fergal Boland put Mayo ahead for the first time.
Shea Ryan came back with a Kildare point but Cillian O’Connor then capitalised on a poor Kildare restart. Darren McHale found his range and replacement Jordan Flynn’s speculative shot lobbed Aaron O’Neill for a second Mayo goal at the death.
The first quarter served up by these teams was simply dreadful. Kildare were marginally less bad but then they didn’t score their first from play until the 16th minute. Mayo scored just twice from their first nine opportunities and didn’t manage a third point until the 29th minute, the total at half-time reading five of 15 chances converted.
Jimmy Hyland’s third free just after the half-hour mark put Kildare 0-6 to 0-3 ahead and they were four ahead when Mayo offered a glimpse of their potential. Eoghan MacLaughlin’s brace of points came in less than two minutes and Aaron O’Neill had to push over his second strike after Jack Carney caught another Mayo scoring attempt that dropped short.
Goals in the last ten minutes from Oisin Mullin and Jordan Flynn gave James Horan's men the win by 2-13 to 14 points.
