Electric Ireland All-Ireland MFC semi-final
Armagh 0-16 1-6 Mayo
ARMAGH set up an all-Ulster All-Ireland MFC final with Derry following a commanding win over Mayo in Longford.
While the sides were tied at half-time, Armagh were much the better team after the turnaround.
It was a controlled and mature performance from Aidan O’Rourke’s youngsters, who defended heroically throughout, with Gavin O’Rourke and Tomas Fox tying up Mayo danger men Kobe McDonald and Oisin Deane.
The class up front from Eoin Duffy and Shea Loughran kept the scoreboard ticking over, while James McCooe tied the whole forward line together with his play-making qualities from centre half-forward.
“The boys deserve it,” said Forker after the game.
“It was just sheer hard work and obviously skill and all the rest and we just executed everything that we needed to do and managed the game really well.
“We went in at half-time and they’d scored 1-4 and 1-3 of that was on us, we gifted them 1-3.
“We knew if we didn’t gift them any more scores, they weren’t going to score much in the second half and, to be fair to the boys, they didn’t.
“We got our house in order, scored ourselves and shut up shop at the back and they couldn’t break us down.”
Armagh’s challenge was dealt a serious setback inside the first 60 seconds of the game when Andrew Quinn easily broke through the defensive lines and fired the ball to the back of the net.
Two Armagh goal chances were repelled by the crossbar, but they did open their account through Duffy, who traded dead-ball efforts with McDonald. Loughran also swapped scores with McDonald before Armagh hit a purple patch.
Duffy really came into the game and enjoyed plenty of space in behind the defence due to Mayo’s high press and he nailed two points, split by a Diarmuid O’Rourke score, to tie things ups after 21 minutes of play.
Deane and O’Rourke both raised white flags before McCooe nudged the Orchard county ahead for the first time.
Mayo’s response was swift, and McDonald fired over an inspirational point to level the game at half time, 1-4 to 0-7.
Armagh burst out of the traps at the start of the second half with six successive points with Loughran (3), Duffy, Dáithí O’Callaghan and Fionn Toale all splitting the posts. Mayo halted the scoring spree briefly through Deane, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
O’Callaghan added his second, either side of two scores from substitute Aaron Garvey.
Mayo finished the scoring for the day through Jack O’Malley, but it was only a consolation score at that stage.
On reaching the decider, Forker added: “We produce a lot of good footballers but maybe we don’t produce them all at the same time and we’re just lucky to be involved with them.
“They’re all pushing and their maximising it and playing to their potential.
“We wish we had the Ulster cup, but we don’t so we’d like to have the All-Ireland and hopefully we can do that in a couple of weeks.”
Armagh M Finnegan; T Fox, G O’Rourke, C Wilson; Fergus Toale, S Woods, D O’Rourke (0-2); J Loughran, D O’Callaghan (0-2); R Marsden, J McCooe (0-1), K McEntee; Fionn Toale (0-1), E Duffy (0-4, 0-2 frees), S Loughran (0-4)
Subs A Garvey (0-2) for R Marsden,O Gribben for D O’Rourke, A McGrane for Fionn Toale, L Bellew for E Duffy
Mayo N Roddy; C Coghill, T Hession, D Butler; D Hurley, M Noonan, M Sheerin; J Moyles, O Loughney; H McHale, K McDonald (0-3, 0-2 frees), D Flynn; B Langan, O Deane (0-2), A Quinn(1-0)
Subs: C Kavanagh for O Loughney, J Ferry for M Sheerin, J O’Malley (0-1) for A Quinn, E Walsh for H McHale, F O’Cinnsella for B Langan
Referee J Hayes (Limerick)