Another win for Mayo despite below par display

Mayo senior hurlers continued their winning ways in the Nickey Rackard Cup with a 2-24 to 1-18 victory over Louth in the third round of the competition on Saturday afternoon, writes Aiden Henry.

While the final scoreline might suggest otherwise, this encounter at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar, was much closer than the scoreline suggests.

Indeed, with 15 minutes remaining Mayo found themselves four points down and in a little trouble. However, they managed to regroup to carve out an important win.

The victory leaves them on maximum points and a win against Sligo in their next game would guarantee them a place in the final, which will be played in Croke Park, regardless of the result in their final group outing against Fermanagh.

However, Mayo manager Ray Larkin and his selectors will no doubt be looking for a big improvement from their side when they faced Sligo.

Against Louth they played in fits and starts and never got into the free-flowing rhythm we often saw from them in the Allianz National League and the opening two rounds of the Nickey Rackard Cup. They were far too many errors in this game from Mayo, including some wayward shooting and needless turnovers on numerous occasions. This will be worked on, and I expect we will see a different Mayo performance when they take on Sligo next time around.

Cormac Phillips was top scorer on the day with six points, while Kieran McDermott and sub Sioman Thomas found the net for Mayo, who trailed by three at the break (1-11 to 1-14).

A better second-half display, with the breeze to their backs, saw the hosts outscore Louth by 1-13 to 0-4. Indeed, they got the perfect start, half-time sub Thomas taking a pass from Shane Boland and rifling a shot to the net to level matter.

They had reeled Louth in, and they spent the rest of the half driving home their superiority.

*See Tuesday's print edition for a full report on the game