Mayo Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final

BREAFFY 0-11 WESTPORT 0-10

By Colm Gannon at Elverys MacHale Park

A last ditch block by Seamus O’Shea to stop a Westport goal chance deep in injury time was vital for Breaffy as they held of James Horan’s Westport side by a single point to book their place in the Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship semi-finals.

Breaffy led by four points at the break in a slow burner of a game and survived the last 15 minutes with 14 men after the dismissal of Matthew Ruane after he picked up a black card to go with a yellow.

Breaffy only managed to score twice in the second half and it was 10 minutes from time before they registered their first score of that period - but they showed their experience when it counted.

With the game level and normal time about to elapse they were awarded a free beyond the 45, but smart thinking by Aidan O’Shea attempting to take it quickly with Lee Keegan in front of him saw the ball brought into more favourable range for Robert Hennelly and the Breaffy custodian kicked the all important score to win the game.

The second half had seen Westport take control of the game and only for some errant shooting they could have been looking forward to a place in the last four of the competition.

Trailing by four at the turnaround the hit the four unanswered points in the first 16 minutes and were running the show with Colm Moran, Fionn McDonagh and Lee Keegan really stepping up.

When Kikelly levelled the game from a free on 46 minutes and being a man up it looked like it was there for Westport to take. But the scuffed at a couple of efforts and a Conor O’Shea free edged Breaffy back in front with ten minutes to go.

Shane Scott levelled it up again two minutes later - but they were unable to push on and Hennelly kicked the winning score. Breaffy did had survive a late goal chance from Kikelly that Seamus O’Shea blocked down - but when they got their hands on the ball - they kept it well to see out the final few moments.

After a quarter of an hour Breaffy led 0-3 to 0-1. The first four scores of the evening all came from placed balls with Conor O’Shea kicking two and Robert Hennelly one for Breaffy and Westport goalkeeper Paddy O’Malley responding for his side.

The first score of the day from play came from Conor O’Shea 20 minutes in with a goo score on the run, two minutes later Killian Kikelly opened his account from play with a sweet effort from the wing to leave Breaffy leading by three.

That gap was pushed out to four one the next three minutes through a Aidan O’Shea point from play after strong running by his brother Seamus. That was quickly followed by efforts from Conor O’Shea and a Hennelly free.

Colm Moran kept Westport in touch with a good effort, before the youngest O’Shea made the score 0-8 to 0-3 on 27 minutes. That lead was further extended by another Hennelly free a minute before the 30 was up.

But in injury time Westport really found a groove they brought into the second half with Colm Moran and Fionn McDonagh pointing after some quick interplay and powerful running from the defence to leave the score at 0-9 to 0-5 at the break.

Scores for Breaffy: Conor O’Shea 0-5 (3fs), R Hennelly 0-4 (4fs), A O’Shea and S McDermott 0-1 each.

Scorers for Westport: Colm Moran and Killian Kilkelly (3fs) 0-3 each, Fionn McDonagh 0-2, Lewis Cawley and Paddy O'Malley (f) 0-1 each.

BREAFFY: R Hennelly; M Dervan, M Hall, D Cannon; K Mulchrone, S O’Shea, J Mingoue, M Ruane, P Dravins; R Fadden, A O’Shea, G Dunne; T O’Reilly, C O’Shea, S McDermott.

Subs: P McDermott for S McDermott, D Morrin for K Mulchrone, C Dravins for P Dravins, G Walsh for G Dunne, G Jenning for T O’Reilly.

WESTPORT: P O’Malley; B Doyle, B O’Malley, K Dever; L Keegan, K Kane, E McLaughlin; F McDonagh, N McManamon; O McLaughlin, J Walsh, P Lambert; C Moran, P Keegan, K Kilkelly.

Subs: D Horan for E McLaughlin, L Cawley for P Keegan, C Higgins for J Walsh, S Scott for K Kilkelly.