Brilliant second-half display sees Mayo land Division 3 hurling title

Mayo produced a brilliant second-half display to land the Allianz National Hurling League Division 3 title with a 0-14 to 1-8 victory over London at Manguard Park, Kildare, on Saturday afternoon.

Trailing by four at the break (0-4 to 1-5), Ray Larkin's charges scored five points without reply to take the lead by the 49th minute, and they were never behind after that.

Led by captain David Kenny, who was superb in the half-back line, Mayo eventually got to grips with a physical London outfit and hurled nicely throughout most of the second half, out-scoring the Exiles by 0-10 to 0-3 in the final 35 minutes.

Shane Boland was Mayo's scorer in chief, accounting for seven points (four frees) of their overall tally, while Liam Lavin, Sean Kenny, Jason Coyne, Cormac Phillips and Eoin Delaney chipped in scores too.

London started very well but were wasteful in front of the posts, hitting nine wides in the first half and eight in the second.

They appeared to have taken a grip on the game with a bundled goal by Conor O'Carroll on 18 minutes, a score which put them into a 1-1 to 0-1 lead, and they bolstered it with some wonderful Paul Kennedy points and a couple of frees from David Devine and Sean Glynn.

With Enda Egan have a storming game at centre-back and Pádraig Muldoon doing a fine job tracking Shane Boland, who landed just one free in the opening half, London were good value for their 1-5 to 0-4 half-time advantage.

But Boland and Mayo were rejuvenated in the second half, and a run of London wides coupled with their opponents' accuracy at the other end swung the game towards Ray Larkin's men.

In such a low-scoring encounter, London were never out of sight and late in the five minutes of added time played, Tom Millerick flashed a shot mere inches wide of Bobby Douglas' post. Had it gone in, the goal would have brought London level and forced extra time. They might have deserved the draw based on their first-half performance, but Mayo were the better team in the second half and by being more economical in front of the posts, they were crowned champions on merit.

Mayo: Bobby Douglas; Conor Murray, Oisín Greally, Conal Hession; Eoghan Collins, Kieran McDermott, David Kenny; Daniel Huane, Sean Kenny (0-1); Liam Lavin (0-3), Joseph Burke, Jason Coyne (0-1); Shane Boland (0-7, 4f), Cormac Phillips (0-1f), Eoin Delaney (0-1).

Subs used: Ryan Duffy, Michael Farrell, Ryan Kilbane.

London: Mark Kilgannon; Pádraig Muldoon, Conor Byrne, Stephen Whelan; Tom Millerick, Enda Egan, Adam Cunney; Niall Geoghegan, Paul Kennedy (0-3); Owen Shiel, Conor O'Carroll (1-0), Sean Glynn (0-1f); David Devine (0-4, 2f), Dylan Dawson.

Subs used: Jack Morrisey, Niall Fitzgerald, Tom Hanifan, Donal Reale, Donnacha Leahy.

Referee: Peter Owens (Down).