{"id":263538,"date":"2026-01-25T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263538\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:49:10","slug":"winning-start-for-mayo-against-wasteful-galway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/263538\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning start for Mayo against wasteful Galway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mayo got their Allianz League campaign off to a flying start when they ousted neighbours Galway in Salthill by a 3-18 to 2-18 scoreline to give new manager Andy Moran a winning start.<\/p>\n<p>They always had an edge over a Galway side who wasted a host of goal chances in a good contest between the neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>Mayo led by 1-12 to 0-09 at the end of a lively opening half where they made the most of what they created, hitting three two-pointers to one for Galway.<\/p>\n<p>Goalkeeper Robbie Hennelly landed two of those from frees while captain Ryan O&#8217;Donoghue gave the large Mayo following in the crowd of over 11,515 plenty to cheer about when he hit a superb effort just before the break.<\/p>\n<p>That was the third time in the half that Mayo punished Galway for stray passes out the field, having got off to a good start when they responded to an opening point from Daniel O&#8217;Flaherty by building a 0-06 to 0-02 lead after 12 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Hennelly got them off the mark with a two-pointer before Jordan Flynn, O\u2019Donoghue, Jack Carney and Darragh Beirne hit the target playing against the slight breeze.<\/p>\n<p>Ron Finnerty got his second point for Galway to cut the gap after 12 minutes having earlier driven a goal chance over the bar and points from Fionn McDonagh were followed by a return of three from Oisin McDonagh, including a good two-pointer to lead by 0-07 to 0-06 after 19 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>But then Sam Callinan, David McBrien and Bob Tuohy combined to set up Aidan O\u2019Shea and he maintained his composure to finish to the net from close range. A free from O\u2019Donoghue made it 1-07 to 0-07 after 22 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Aidan O'Shea of Mayo scored goal against Galway - 2026 Allianz Football League\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023cbfe-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nAidan O&#8217;Shea with Mayo&#8217;s opening goal<\/p>\n<p>The sides twice exchanged points but Mayo, after Galway\u2019s Ciaran Mulhern hit the crossbar and Kieran Molloy flashed a goal chance over, finished the half strongly with another point from Flynn and then O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s two-pointer to lead by six at the break.<\/p>\n<p>Fionn McDonagh pulled back a point for Galway on the restart but Mayo hit back with Hennelly\u2019s third two-pointer and one from O\u2019Donoghue before Darragh Beirne slotted low to the net after being set up by Jack Carney.<\/p>\n<p>Points from Mulhern and Fionn McDonagh were cancelled by a two-pointer free from O\u2019Donoghue made it 2-17 to 0-12 after 49 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Galway mounted a comeback and hit 1-04 without reply, with Shane McGrath shooting to the net before goalkeeper Hennelly denied Daniel O\u2019Flaherty after Mulhern had flashed an effort across goal.<\/p>\n<p>That got the gap down to four points with eleven minutes remaining but Cian McHale extended Mayo\u2019s lead after being set up by David McBrien.<\/p>\n<p>Galway hit back and Fionn McDonagh took his tally to 1-04 when he slotted home a goal after a delivery from Mattius Barrett eight minutes from time.<\/p>\n<p>But that was as close as Galway got and they finished with 14 men when Barrett was black-carded after Fergal Boland had pointed for Mayo.<\/p>\n<p>Mulhern hit a two-pointer two minutes from time but Galway never looked like getting the goal they needed for a share of the spoils as Moran\u2019s Mayo ensured a winning start after a fine match.<\/p>\n<p>Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Finnian O Laoi (0-01), Dylan McHugh, Kieran Molloy (0-01); Sean Kelly, Cian Hernon; Liam Silke, Ciaran Mulhern (0-03, 1 2pf), Daniel O&#8217;Flaherty (0-01); Fionn McDonagh (1-04), Rob Finnerty (0-5, 0-2f), Oisin McDonagh (0-3, 1 2p).<\/p>\n<p>Subs: Shane Walsh for O Laoi (31-36), M Barrett for O Laoi (41) Walsh for O McDonagh (45), Shay McGlinchey for Hernon (45), Shane McGrath (1-00) for Molloy (49), Liam O Conghaile for O\u2019Flaherty (65).<\/p>\n<p>Mayo: Robbie Hennelly (0-06, 3 2pf); Eoin McGreal, Stephen Coen, Enda Hession; Sam Callinan, Michael Plunkett, Sean Morahan; Bob Tuohy, David McBrien; Jack Carney (0-01), Ryan O Donoghue (0-07, 1 2pf, 1 2p) , Jordan Flynn (0-02); Darragh Beirne (1-01), Aidan O Shea (1-00), Tommy Conroy.<\/p>\n<p>Subs: Paddy Durcan for McGreal (17), Conal Dawson for Flynn (49), Cian McHale (1-00) for Beirne (49), James Carr for Conroy (54), Fergal Boland (0-01) for Plunkett (60).<\/p>\n<p>Referee: Conor Lane (Cork).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayo got their Allianz League campaign off to a flying start when they ousted neighbours Galway in Salthill&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-263538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}