Hat trick hero douglas fires mitchels to 29th county title
Castlebar Mitchels...4-10
Breaffy ...................0-9
A HAT trick from man-of-the-match Neil Douglas put the seal of approval on another county title success for Castlebar Mitchels as Breaffy’s bid for their first ever senior crown fell well short at Elverys MacHale Park this afternoon.
Douglas struck with the first of his goals when he fired home a stunning effort from 15 yards five minutes before half-time.
A scrambled goal from Danny Kirby on 17 minutes had fired Mitchels into a 1-3 0-3 lead and, by the interval, they had taken command of the game by 2-6 to 0-5 playing into the wind.
Breaffy knew it wasn’t going to be their day when Tom O’Reilly saw his cracking effort come off the crossbar while Alan Feeney prevented a certain goal when he cleared the ball off the goal line.
But a black card for Mitchels midfielder Barry Moran following a tackle on Aidan O’Shea suggested Castlebar might struggle.
In truth, however, it was one-way traffic for the next 15 minutes as the Mitchels defence snuffed out the threat of Aidan O’Shea, keeping Breaffy scoreless until the last 10 minutes while the likes of Danny Kirby, Aidan Walsh and Richie Feeney stepped up to the plate for Castlebar.
It was the class of Douglas, who hit the net twice in the second half, which ultimately ensured Castlebar were triumphant with a repeat victory over the team they beat in the 2013 final when they last won the title.
Afterwards, Douglas said that while he enjoyed getting the man of the match award, he felt the Mitchels defence deserved huge credit.
'We knew we had to stop Breaffy scoring goals and our defence did a huge job. Any one of our defenders could have got this award,' was his modest observation.
Castlebar Mitchels: R. Byrne, A. Feeney, R. O’Malley, D. Newcombe, P. Durcan, E. O’Reilly (0-1), G. McDonagh, A. Walsh (0-3, 3f), B. Moran, S. Hopkins, N. Lydon, N. Douglas (3-1, 1f), T. Cunniffe, R. Feeney (0-1), D. Kirby (1-3).
Subs: J. Durcan (0-1) for B. Moran (BC 34), C. Costello for Hopkins (44), F. Durkan for N. Lydon (45), R. Burke for O’Malley (47), S. Conlon for Newcombe (55), M. Towey for R. Feeney (58).
Breaffy: R. Hennelly (0-1f), C. Jordan, M. Jennings, D. Morrin, M. Hall, C. Kelly, D. Gavin, R. Fadian, S. O’Shea (0-1), C. O’Shea (0-4, 2f), A. O’Shea, K. Mulchrone, G. Dunne, G. Walsh (0-1), T. O’Reilly (0-1, 1f).
Subs: M. Ruane for G. Dunne (26), D. Cannon for Kelly (7), L. Irwin for Walsh (45), G. Jennings for Mulchrone (45), P. Dravins (0-1) for Fadian (50), D. Morrin for Martyn (55).
Referee: L. Devenney (Ballina).