Mayo struggle to make it to quarter-final against Tyrone

Another All-Ireland quarter-final berth booked by Mayo, but the prospect of finally recapturing Sam looks further away than ever after this most unconvincing of wins on Saturday evening.

Mayo struggle to make it to quarter-final against Tyrone

Mayo 3-15

Westmeath 1-14

Brendan O’Brien

Croke Park

Another All-Ireland quarter-final berth booked by Mayo, but the prospect of finally recapturing Sam looks further away than ever after this most unconvincing of wins on Saturday evening.

Seemingly home and hosed after a half-hour of this Round 4B qualifier, Stephen Rochford’s men had to fashion a late burst of 1-1 from two of their usual totems – Cillian O’Connor and Aidan O’Shea – to finally divest themselves of their determined opponents.

It does not bode well for their meeting with Tyrone next week.

The suggestion even before their Connacht semi-final exit earlier this summer was that a run through the back door could be just the ticket for them. They have done little this last few weeks to give credence to that.

The first quarter here was mostly awful. It took 15 minutes for Andy Moran to manage the game’s first score from play and, while Mayo began to find a rhythm, Westmeath flailed about for some momentum much longer.

Playing again with two sweepers, the Leinster finalists were all but powerless to prevent Mayo scything through them as the first-half wore on. The full-forward line of Evan Regan, Andy Moran and Cillian O’Connor was inflicting the majority of the damage.

The first Mayo goal arrived 23 minutes in with Jason Doherty running in on goal to collect Donal Vaughan’s square handpass. He finished low under Darren Quinn whose accumulation of steps in his own small square then conceded a penalty four minutes from the break.

O’Connor dispatched the spot kick efficiently, finding the roof of the rigging, and a subsequent point from Mayo’s own sweeper, Kevin McLoughlin, left the scores at 2-10 to 0-4 and with the prospect of a decimation hanging uneasily in the air.

There was already far less than the announced attendance of 27,615 knocking about HQ by then but those that stayed got to experience the welcome sense of hope restored when wing-back James Dolan found the net with a grass-cutter of a finish low into the Mayo net.

It was a shot attempted from distance - and the blue - and Westmeath should have had a second goal seconds later when Kieran Martin and then John Connellan failed to punish slack Mayo play from the kick-out when bearing down on David Clarke’s goal.

No second three-pointer then but they did come away with another John Heslin pointed free and then added a quartet of points to their collection after the interval. It brought a deficit that had stood at a dozen points back to just five with half an hour to play.

The flow of Westmeath scores slowed slightly from there on in but they continued to creep closer and closer thanks in no small part to O’Connor and Aidan O’Shea both being denied goals by a lick of paint on the Westmeath post and crossbar.

Mayo could have done with the breathing room.

Instead, the gap was down to just three points with eight minutes to go and it still was as injury-time approached. In the end, there were 73 minutes played before the game was finally made safe by an O’Connor free and an Aidan O’Shea goal.

So close for Westmeath. Too close for Mayo.

Scorers for Mayo: C O’Connor (1-5, 0-2 frees); J Doherty (1-1); A O’Shea (1-0); E Regan (0-3, 0-2 frees); A Moran (0-2); K Higgins, P Durcan, D Vaughan and K McLoughlin (all 0-1).

Scorers for Westmeath: J Heslin (0-10, 0-7 frees); K Martin (0-2); J Dolan (1-1); F Boyle (0-1).

Mayo: D Clarke; K McLoughlin, K Keane, B Harrison; C Boyle, L Keegan, P Durcan; S O’Shea, A O’Shea; D Vaughan, K Higgins, J Doherty; E Regan, A Moran, C O’Connor. Subs: B Moran for Boyle (53); A Dillon for Regan (55); C O’Shea for Doherty (59); A Freeman for A Moran (66); C Barrett for Keegan (68); T Parsons for S O’Shea (70).

Westmeath: D Quinn; A Stone, K Daly, J Gonoud; J Dolan, K Maguire, F Boyle; J Heslin, G Egan; J Egan, P Sharry, D Lynch; C McCormack, K Martin, J Connellan. Subs: D Corroon for Stones (20); D Daly for Lynch (32); S Gallagher for Quinn (HT); S Corcoran for J Egan (45); D McNicholas for Connellan (54); D Conway for McCormack (66).

Referee: R Hickey (Clare).

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