James Horan's Mayo secures penalty-shoot-out win against Leitrim
(Mayo win 4-1 on penalties)
James Horan wants to make history in his second stint as Mayo manager but little did he think that a nugget of it would come in his first match back as they advanced to a FBD League semi-final showdown with Galway on the back of a penalty shootout.
Penalty shoot out! https://t.co/MvFcMl3b41
— Connacht GAA (@ConnachtGAA) January 6, 2019
His men led by 2-9 to 0-8 at half-time thanks to early goals from Reape and Boland and they went double scores ahead when Fionn McDonagh became the sixth forward to score nine minutes after the restart.
The Leitrim revival came, rather bizarrely, when midfielder Dean McGovern was sin-binned for an off the ball tussle with Brendan Harrison, but new manager Hyland saw his men score 2-1 without reply when down a man on a day when the experimental rules had little impact.
Evan Sweeney and Ryan O’Rourke got the goals but there was a further twist deep into stoppage time when McGovern appeared to be sent off when he was booked. But instead of going off he set up Damian Moran for an equaliser four minutes into stoppage time.
The crowd waited for extra-time but an announcement declared a penalty shootout and a further tannoy declaration made it clear only goals would count. Up stepped captain for day Jason Doherty, Reape, Boland and Evan Regan to find the net, with O’Rourke the only Leitrim player to score.
F Boland 1-3; B Reape 1-1; J Doherty 0-3 (3f), E Regan 0-2 (1f); R Hennelly (1’45), C Moran, E O’Donoghue & F McDonagh 0-1 each.
E Sweeney 1-3 (2f); R O’Rouke 1-0; P Dolan & J Heslin 0-2 each; S Quinn, D McGovern, C McGloin, D Flynn (1f), D Moran & S Moran 0-1 each.
MAYO: R Hennelly; E O'Donoghue, G Cafferkey, B Harrison; L Keegan, J McCormack, D Vaughan; S O'Shea, S Coen; F McDonagh, J Doherty, F Boland; C Moran, B Reape, E Regan.
SUBS: C Crowe for Cafferkey (h-t), J Kelly for Coen (58), B Doyle for O’Donoghue (59), O McLaughlin for Moran (64), C Tracey for McDonagh (68).
LEITRIM: D McKiernan; P Maguire, F McTague, A Flynn; C Reynolds, R Mulvey, S Quinn; D McGovern, S Moran; S McWeeney, C McGloin, J Heslin; E Sweeney, P Dolan, D Flynn.
SUBS: M Plunkett for A Flynn (39), R O’Rourke for McGloin (45), G Reynolds for Heslin (49), D Moran for Dolan (63), D Rooney for Mulvey (68).
Referee: James Molloy (Galway).
