SOME sporting stats are over-stated, with a team only having not won at a certain venue for 50 years because they’d played there just once over that time, or not at all.
Yet Mayo’s poor home record against Tyrone, and/or the Red Hands’ love of going to Castlebar, is not such a twisted tale.
Tyrone have not lost at MacHale Park for more than 30 years, so long ago that it was in Section C and the game took place in October, as the opener to the 1992/93 league campaign.
Mayo, under the new management of Kerry legend Jack O’Shea, came out on top by 2-12 to 1-11, with their goals coming from midfielder TJ Kilgallon and inside-forward Ray Dempsey, the current Limerick football manager. Liam McHale was at full-forward and Anthony Finnerty scored three points at corner-forward, although he had a last-gasp penalty kick saved by goalkeeper Finbarr McConnell.
Tyrone’s goal-scorer was Eamonn McCaffrey, who added three points, as did both Mattie McGleenan and Ciaran ‘Sid’ Corr, with a point apiece from Plunkett Donaghy and Terry McGoldrick. According to the Tyrone GAA On This Day Twitter feed - @TyroneGAAOTD – there were Tyrone senior debuts for Gavin McElroy, Terence O'Neill, Colm Donnelly, and Vinny Owens; the last-named, better known as a hurler, came off the bench.
Current Tyrone joint-boss Feargal Logan returned to inter-county action at corner-back that day, in a game which also marked the first as Tyrone senior bosses of Art McRory and Eugene McKenna. They went on to lead the Red Hands to Ulster crowns in 1995 and 1996, and to the All-Ireland SFC Final in ’95, before winning the county’s first All-Ireland senior title, the National Football League of 2002, in their second spell in charge.
Who did Tyrone beat in the League semi-final that year? Yep, Mayo, easing to a 3-12 to 0-11 success at Brewster Park in Enniskillen, before comfortably seeing off Cavan in the decider.
The only other League meeting in the Nineties had come at Dungannon, when the hosts hammered Mayo by 3-11 to 1-5 in round seven of Division Two. The visitors were relegated while Tyrone went on to lose narrowly in the semi-finals to eventual League champions Derry.
Since then, the Red Hands have returned to Castlebar on seven occasions and won five of those matches, drawing the other two.
The most recent victory, in the final round of 2020 Division One, simultaneously saved Tyrone’s top flight status and consigned Mayo to relegation for the first time in 23 years, having been demoted from Division Two in 1997.
Strangely enough that 2020 game also occurred in October, on the 25th, with the league having been interrupted for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
That game was a topsy-turvy thriller, Conor McKenna scoring 2-2 and Darragh Canavan 1-1 for the visitors, who held a nine-point lead, 3-10 to 0-10 before Mayo came storming back. The hosts got to within a point, but the Red Hands held on for a 3-14 to 1-19 victory.
Had Mayo drawn they would have stayed up, and they might have been able to welcome Tyrone to Carrick-on–Shannon, where they hosted their 2021 League games due to redevelopment work at MacHale Park.
Even when Mayo were probably the second best team in the country, over the 2010s, even when they got the better of Tyrone in the Championship – in 2004, 2013, and 2016 - they could not buy a win over them in Castlebar over that decade.
In the previous one, Tyrone showed the spirit and skill of reigning All-Ireland champions to twice deny Mayo home wins in the league, in 2006 and again in 2009.
On the first occasion it was the unexpected figure of full-back Conor Gormley (albeit he had switched to centre half-back around the hour mark) who powered forward to level matters at Mayo 1-8 Tyrone 0-11. However, the visitors still might have felt hard done by, due to a series of questionable decisions against them by referee John Bannon. Their own shooting poor, missing many good chanes among 11 wides.
In 2009, Martin Penrose was the Red Hands’ saviour, soring the late equalising point in a 1-11 to 0-4 draw, bringing his tally to 0-6, five of those from play. Again, though, Tyrone might feel they should have won, registering an astonishing 18 wides.
The Red Hands have won every way in Castlebar since then: narrowly, in 2013 (thanks to a late penalty converted by Stephen O'Neill) and 2020, both by the minimum margin; fairly comfortably, by four points in 2015; and handsomely in 2018, dispensing a 2-14 to 0-8 thrashing.
This is an unusual fixture, with away teams tending to come out on top. Tyrone did win at Healy Park last year, 0-11 to 0-9, and in 2014, by 2-15 to 0-15.
Yet Mayo have returned home from Omagh with both points on a few recent occasions: after a nine-point win in the 2019 opener, 2-13 to 0-10; edging a 2017 round six encounter, 1-10 to 0-12. They also squeaked to victory in 2010, 1-12 to 1-11, by 4-7 to 1-11 in the last round of 2007, and by 0-16 to 1-11 in the 2005 opener.
On form, Mayo should be favourites, after drawing with both Galway and Armagh, then thrashing Kerry at the weekend, while Tyrone lost in Roscommon and Galway either side of beating Donegal.
Still, with Tyrone’s record in MacHale Park, the hosts will surely worry and be wary.
1992/93 Section C round 1: Mayo 2-12 Tyrone 1-11
Mayo: G Irwin; K Beirne, T Tierney, D Flanagan; A McGarry, D Kearney, P Butler; K Staunton, TJ Kilgallon (1-0); B Kilkelly (0-2), K Reilly, T Morley; A Finnerty (0-3), L McHale (0-1), R Dempsey (1-4).
Subs: R Golding (0-1) for K Reilly; J Finn for D Kearney.
Tyrone: F McConnell; F Logan, P O’Neill, G McElroy; T O’Neill, J Mallon, F Devlin; P Donaghy (0-1), A Kilpatrick; T McGoldrick (0-1), C Corr (0-3), P Canavan; C Donnelly, M McGleenan (0-3), E McCaffrey (1-3).
Subs: V Owens for Donnelly; S McNally for McGoldrick.
Tyrone-Mayo League results (over the past 30 years):
2022 Division One round 6: Tyrone 0-11 Mayo 0-9
2020 Division One round 7: Mayo 1-19 Tyrone 3-14 (Mayo relegated for first time in 23 years)
2019 Division One round 2: Tyrone 0-10 Mayo 2-13
2018 Division One round 6: Mayo 0-8 Tyrone 2-14
2017 Division One round 6: Tyrone 0-12 Mayo 1-10
2015 Division One round 2: Mayo 1-7 Tyrone 1-11
2014 Division One round 2: Tyrone 2-15 Mayo 0-15
2013 Division One round 2: Mayo 1-11 Tyrone 1-12
2010 Division One round 2: Tyrone 1-11 Mayo 1-12
2009 Division One round 7: Mayo 1-11 Tyrone 0-14
2008 Division One round 7: Tyrone 0-15 Mayo 0-13
2007 Division 1A round 7: Tyrone 1-11 Mayo 4-7
2006 Division 1A round 7: Mayo 1-8 Tyrone 0-11
2005 Division 1A round 5: Tyrone 1-11 Mayo 0-16
2004 Division 1A round 5: Mayo 1-5 Tyrone 2-11
2002 Division One semi-final (Brewster Park): Tyrone 3-12 Mayo 0-11
1994/95 Division 2 round 7: Tyrone 3-11 Mayo 1-5
1992/93 Section C round 1: Mayo 2-12 Tyrone 1-11.
Clashes in Castlebar:
2020 Division One round 7: Mayo 1-19 Tyrone 3-14
2018 Division One round 6: Mayo 0-8 Tyrone 2-14
2015 Division One round 2: Mayo 1-7 Tyrone 1-11
2013 Division One round 2: Mayo 1-11 Tyrone 1-12
2009 Division One round 7: Mayo 1-11 Tyrone 0-14
2006 Division 1A round 7: Mayo 1-8 Tyrone 0-11
2004 Division 1A round 5: Mayo 1-5 Tyrone 2-11
1992/93 Section C round 1: Mayo 2-12 Tyrone 1-11
Championship meetings:
2021 All-Ireland SFC Final: Tyrone 2-14 Mayo 0-15
2016 All-Ireland semi-final: Mayo 0-13 Tyrone 0-12
2013 All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Mayo 1-16 Tyrone 0-13
2008 All-Ireland SFC qualifiers round 3: Tyrone 0-13 Mayo 1-9
2004 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Mayo 0-16 Tyrone 1-9
1989 All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Mayo 0-12 Tyrone 1-6
