McStay lauds O'Shea milestone as Mayo are pushed all the way by Leitrim

Mayo were forced to battle all the way in their Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final against Leitrim before eventually winning by 0-20 to 0-13 at Avant Money Páirc Seán MacDiarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon, writes Brian Gillespie.

The hosts put waste to the pre-match rhetoric that had Mayo raging hot favourites as they delivered a spirited performance full of honest endeavour and huge commitment, with midfielder Barry McNulty putting in a man of the match performance.

It bodes well for their Tailteann Cup campaign, but they are out of the race for Connacht glory as Mayo march on to play either Roscommon or Galway in the final in two weeks' time.

Mayo were ahead by one point at the break (0-8 to 0-7) and kept the scoreboard ticking over after the break, with new faces introduced for the second period in an attempt to shake things up.

Paul Towey impressed with a couple of good scores after his introduction in the second half, while Ryan O'Donoghue was chief scorer from play and frees and Aidan O'Shea did a lot of hard work on what was his 200th appearance for Mayo.

“He's highly regarded, the lads love him, we all love him – it couldn't happen to a better fella,” said Mayo manager Kevin McStay on O'Shea's milestone.

“He comes from a great family, a great football family,” McStay continued. "I'm thrilled for him, but it's his 201st game I'm really worried about now – that's the one I'm hoping will go unbelievably well!”

The manager was also able to introduce Diarmuid O'Connor for the second half, while Donnacha McHugh and Dylan Thornton continue to make an impression in the green and red and both put in encouraging displays in the semi-final.

One of the highlights of the second half was an excellent point from Stephen Coen after a flowing move but such instances were few and far between as Mayo's performance was more workmanlike than inspirational.

“All departments need work,” McStay admitted. “But we'll be faced with a different scenario the next day. Every game is slightly different. We have pretty much a full pack to pick from, so it's going to be tasty the next two weeks because there are jerseys on offer. I'm hoping everybody's highly motivated now for (training on) Tuesday night.”

*See Tuesday's print edition for a full report and reaction