Castlebar Mitchels (Mayo) 1-10

Tourlestrane (Sligo) 0-5

Neil Douglas bagged 1-5 as Castlebar Mitchels opened their Connacht club SFC defence with a comfortable victory over Tourlestrane at Markievicz Park.

The win sets up a mouth-watering provincial semi-final against 2015 All-Ireland champions Corofin in Elvery's MacHale Park next weekend and offers the Galway kingpins the opportunity to avenge last year's surprise defeat to their Mayo counterparts.

Castlebar, who only retained the Moclair Cup seven days ago, had posted 1-6 before Tourlestrane finally opened their account in first half injury-time. The winners hardly missed their injured county star Paddy Durcan as they dominated from the first whistle 'til last.

The Mayo champions were never headed after Durcan's twin brother James kicked the opening score in the eighth minute. Douglas proceeded to score 1-4 in the first half, with his goal coming in the 18th minute after Aidan Walsh had supplied the ammunition. Gary Gaughan eventually broke the hosts' scoring duck to leave them trailing by 0-1 to 1-6 at the break.

Further scores from Douglas - before he received a black card - and David Stenson extended Castlebar's lead to 1-8 to 0-2 by the three-quarter hour mark. Tourlestrane then enjoyed their best spell when Liam Gaughan (free), Niall Egan and ex-Mayo star Peter Harte all had points, but the visitors were able to close out the game with late scores from sub Cian Costello (free) and Fergal Durcan.

Castlebar Mitchels - R Byrne; D Newcombe, G McDonagh, S Irwin; R Collins, E O'Reilly, R O'Malley; A Walsh, B Moran; D Stenson (0-1f), F Durcan (0-1), J Durcan (0-2); N Douglas (1-5, 0-3f), D Kirby, S Hopkins. Subs: C Kyne for N Douglas (BC), N Lydon for D Kirby, A O'Boyle for A Walsh (BC), C Costello (0-1f) for J Durcan, R Burke for R Collins, D Joyce for D Stenson.

Tourlestrane - P McVeigh; C Neary, B Kennedy, J F Carr; G Gaughan (0-1), A McIntyre, J Leonard; S Henry, J Quinn; P Harte (0-1f), C Henry, A Dunne; J Kelly, J Marren, B Egan (0-1f). Subs: B Walsh for J Leonard, L Gaughan (0-1f) for A Dunne, N Egan (0-1) for S Henry (BC), S Dunne for J Kelly, J Kelly for L Gaughan (BC).

Referee - E O'Grady.

Tweet

Most Read Stories