Galway U20 football manager, Derek Savage.
Dalata Hotel Connacht U-20FC Round 1
MAYO 1-15 (1-0-15) ROSCOMMON 0-13 (0-3-7)
LEITRIM 1-10 (1-2-6) GALWAY 1-21 (1-5-11)
2022 All-Ireland minor football finalists Galway and Mayo made strong starts to their 2025 U-20 campaigns this evening, with both sides recording comfortable victories over Leitrim and Mayo respectively.
Cloone was the venue for Galway’s meeting with a Leitrim outfit that caught the eye with some impressive performances on the challenge match circuit, but just like the county’s seniors, Derek Savage’s U-20s racked up the scores from two-pointers, raising five orange flags in the first half to build up what was effectively an unassailable lead.
Seán O’Connor and Colm Costello both landed bombs from distance as Galway made it 0-8 to 0-0 with a mere nine minutes played, sucking the energy out of the home crowd and laying down a marker for the rest of the country in the process.
Jack Kelly gave the home side a lifeline with a well-worked goal to open their account, but Galway didn’t lose a step and another brace of doubles from Éanna Monaghan and Seán Dunne pushed the interval lead out to double figures, 0-15 to 1-2.
Costello, the team captain, fired in Galway’s goal with just two minutes gone after half-time and while Leitrim outscored their visitors for the remainder of the game, two late orange flags from Ben Guckian didn’t mask the gulf between the two sides on the night.
A five-point margin of victory at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park would indicate that the other first-round game in the Dalata Hotel Connacht U-20 championship was a much closer affair, but it was only the heroics of Roscommon goalkeeper Patrick Gaynor, not to mention Mayo’s inaccuracy, landing 13 wides in the hour, that kept it close.
Long-range efforts from Rory Carthy and John Curran helped Roscommon to establish an 0-8 to 0-4 lead by the 20th minute, but a run of 1-4 without reply from Mayo in response established a solid position for the green and red.
Tom Lydon fired over three points from play in quick succession as part of his first half tally of six, while team captain John McMonagle palmed in a goal thanks to his ability to leap higher than Gaynor when competing for the rebound from a Josh Carey shot off the crossbar, establishing a 1-8 to 0-9 interval lead.
Roscommon started strong after the interval, briefly drawing level through points from David Higgins, Keelan Kelly and John Curran, but they raised just one more flag for the last 25 minutes, allowing Mayo to ease clear without ever finding their range up front.
