Mayo survive as Donegal relegated to Division 2

In this ‘winner takes all’ bottom of the table survival battle, it was Mayo that easily sent Donegal down following a facile 13-point drubbing in Letterkenny. 

Donegal 3-2
Mayo 5-9

By the break, Michael Moyles’ girls were as good as safe as they held a commanding 16-point lead. 

Mayo - who would make 17 substitutions over the hour -  hit the ground running when Deirdre Doherty’s quick thinking from a close range free teed up Rachel Kearns to her right and even though the visiting full-forward smacked a post, she still had the time and space to plant home the rebound. 

Ciara McGarvey got Donegal off the mark on three minutes but with Lisa Cafferky posting a quickfire brace, the visitors led 1-2 to 0-1 by the seventh minute. Cafferky then notched her and her side’s third point before substitute Sinead Walsh, only into the action, squeezed in a second Mayo goal to put eight between the sides, 20 minutes in. 

With Donegal out of shape and sorts at the back, the quick heeled Tamara O’Connor got there first in front of Emer Gallagher out wide. 

Her first time ball in towards Cafferky was on the money as the Mayo danger woman peeled away at just the right time to collect and roll past the advancing Aoife McColgan.  Indeed, but for an excellent stop moments later by McColgan, Aoife Geraghty would have raised a fourth green flag for the Connaught girls. 

Still, Mayo did find the net once again before half time when an attempted effort by Katy Herron, from a free, to go back to McColgan was intercepted by Deirdre Doherty and she raced clear to fire into the empty net.

Doherty would add a free to Mayo’s tally before the midpoint meaning they departed with a 4-5 to 0-1 lead.

Ella Brennan could have tagged on a fifth Mayo goal right at the start of the second stanza but she blazed over. A full half hour after their previous opening point, Donegal finally added a second as McGarvey chipped over a free while Mayo replacement Maria Cannon also lobbed a brace of points at the other end. 

With efforts tailing off on both sides and with benches ran in the last quarter, Mayo closed out their day with a fifth goal through Sinead Cafferky.

As they wound down, a late Donegal blitz resulted in the hosts finding the net on three occasions through Katie Long, Niamh McLaughlin and Cody Walsh.

Donegal scorers: Ciara McGarvey 0-2,1f; Katie Long 1-0; Niamh McLaughlin 1-0; Cody Walsh 1-0.  

Mayo scorers: Lisa Cafferky 1-3; Deirdre Doherty 1-1; Rachel Kearns 1-0; Sinead Walsh 1-0; Sinead Cafferky 1-0; Maria Cannon 0-2,1f; Shauna Howley 0-1,1f; Ella Brennan 0-1; Erin Murray 0-1. 

Donegal: Aoife McColgan; Caoimhe Keon, Emer Gallagher, Nicole McLaughlin; Roisin Rodgers, Amy Boyle Carr, Tara Hegarty; Shelly Twohig, Niamh McLaughlin; Niamh Carr, Katie Long, Katie Dowds; Susanne White, Katy Herron, Ciara McGarvey. 

Subs: Saskia Boyle for White (34), Aoibhinn O’Connell for Rodgers (40), Abigail Temple Asoko for Twohig (47), Catherine Boyle and Claire Friel for N Carr and McColgan (both 50), Shauna Higgins for N McLaughlin (52), Laoise Ryan and Cait Gillespie for Long and Dowds (both 56), Katie O’Donnell, Sophie McFeely and Codie Walsh for Herron, E Gallagher and Keon (all 57).

Mayo: Laura Brennan; Ellis Ronayne, Danielle Caldwell, Saoirse Lally; Tamara O’Connor, Ciara Needham, Kathryn Sullivan; Aoife Geraghty, Sinead Cafferky; Deirdre Doherty, Shauna Howley, Fiona McHale; Lisa Cafferky, Rachel Kearns, Maria Reilly. 

Subs: Sinead Walsh for Kearns (6, inj), Sarah Mulvihill for Reilly (13), Roisin Flynn for Needham (14, inj), Sarah Tierney for Caldwell (28), Ella Brennan for Sullivan (30+3), Saoirse Delaney for D Doherty (ht), Maria Cannon, Hannah Reape and Lucy Wallace for O’Connor, McHale and Howley (all 40), Ciara Durcan for Sarah Tierney (43), Jenna Mortimer for Ronayne (43); Lisa Ried May for Brennan (46); Emily Reape and Erin Murray for Lally and L Cafferky (both 52); Rosin Durcan for S Cafferky (55), Maria Reilly for Walsh (58); Caldwell for Brennan (60+8). 

Referee: Shane Curley (Galway).