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Mayo finished with a flourish to deny Armagh a morale-boosting win at Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon.
The Orchard county led the Division One clash by three points with five minutes of normal time remaining but they were unable to withstand Mayo’s late rally and as they lost composure, the westerners grew in confidence and nailed on the last five points of the game to win.
Armagh began the game with a Ciaran Mackin goal straight from the kick off and led 1-3 to 0-1 early in the second half and, although Mayo’s fought back through key forward Ryan O’Donoghue, two Rian O’Neill scores left Kieran McGeeney’s side 1-5 to 0-6 ahead at half-time.
Despite the loss of Mackin to a black card, Armagh continued to give as good as they got in the second half and back-to-back points from Cullyhanna’s Aidan Nugent saw them take what looked like a match-winning lead in the final quarter.
Poor Decision Making
However, Mayo, bolstered by the introduction of several substitutes most notably Paddy Durcan, kicked for home and Armagh manager McGeeney was disappointed with how his side lost composure in the closing stages.
“We gave away a three-point lead and they weren’t even putting us under any pressure, it was just our stupid passing,” he said.
“We weren’t under any pressure, but we just gave the ball away – fist-passing to a Mayo man, dropping ball, kicking ball away… It was very annoying.
“We were sitting well there with the wind at our back and we just gave the ball away so it’s just disappointing, we tried hard but our decision-making was very poor.”
Allianz National Football League Division One Final Score: Mayo 0-15 Armagh 1-10
Teams
Mayo: R Byrne; L Keegan, R Brickenden, M Plunkett; O Mullin, S Coen, S Callinan; J Flynn (0-1), M Ruane (0-1); F McDonagh, D O’Connor (0-2), C Loftus; A Orme (0-1 mark), F Irwin, R O’Donoghue (0-7, 0-6 frees)
Subs: K McLoughlin (0-1) for Irwin (20), P Durcan (0-2) for Brickenden (32), P O’Hora for Callinan (HT), A O’Shea for Loftus (HT), J Carney for McDonagh (57), F Boland for McLoughlin (72)
Yellow card: Callinan (35)
Armagh: E Rafferty; P Burns, A Forker, A McKay; Connaire Mackin, N Rowland, J Og Burns; Ciaran Mackin (1-0), B Crealey; S Campbell (0-1), R Grugan (0-2, 0-1 free), T Kelly; J Duffy (0-1), R O’Neill (0-, 0-2 frees), A Nugent (0-2)
Subs: C Turbitt (0-1) for Duffy (40), J Morgan for McKay (52), S Sheridan for Crealey (55), O O’Neill for Rowland (65), C O’Neill for Forker (72)
Yellow cards: Rafferty (33), R O’Neill (60), P Burns (65)
Black card: Ciaran Mackin (35)
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath)
