Mayo ended Galway's reign as Connacht champions, stylishly defeating the Tribesmen 0-18 to 1-9 in today's provincial semi-final in Castlebar.

Galway had made a whirlwind start when sleepy defending allowed Michael Meehan to ghost in for a goal in the first minute. Indeed, when the Tribesmen led 1-3 to no score after just six minutes it looked ominous for Mayo.

However, Mayo fought back with the two Mortimers, Conor and Trevor, featuring strongly in their comeback. 

Two unanswered scoring runs of three points each for Mayo - the first coming from Conor Mortimer (0-02) and Kieran McDonald, the second from Conor Mortimer, Brian Maloney and McDonald - rocked Galway who began to look frail and vulnerable. Mayo gradually clawed their way back into the game and only trailed by one point at the break - 0-8 to 1-6.

In the second half, Mayo began to stretch their lead, with a run of score through Ronan McGarrity, Conor Mortimer (taking four in a row between the 39th and 55th minutes), Brian Maloney, James Gill, Conor Mortimer again and finally David Heaney. This was punctuated by only one score from Galway, a Padraig Joyce point at the beginning of the half.

John Maughan's men now advance to a final meeting with Roscommon while John O'Mahony's Galway will meet Louth in the second round of the qualifiers.

For the draw for round two of the football qualifiers, click on link below:

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p249.htm