Kerry ease past Mayo to complete All-Ireland SFC semi-final line-up

June 26, 2022

Kerry's David Clifford celebrates after scoring a goal against Mayo. ©INPHO/Evan Treacy.

Kerry will face old rivals Dublin in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland senior football championship in two weeks' time following their comfortable 1-18 to 0-13 victory over Mayo at Croke Park this afternoon.

On the other side of the draw, it’ll be Galway against Derry following a dramatic weekend of quarter-final action, which saw all four provincial champions progressing to the last four of the Sam Maguire Cup race.

Mayo just trailed by a point (1-10 to 0-12) on 48 minutes when substitute James Carr fired over the bar, but could only manage one further point as a more efficient Kerry outfit reeled off the next seven scores from David Moran, Tom O'Sullivan, Paul Geaney (3), substitute Killian Spillane and Sean O'Shea to seize control of proceedings. Last year's beaten finalists were extremely wasteful in front of the posts, particularly in the second-half - James Horan's side registered 12 wides overall.

David Clifford scored the only goal of the game in the 28th minute - collecting a pass from Stephen O'Brien before blasting the ball past goalkeeper Rob Hennelly - to help push the Kingdom towards a 1-7 to 0-9 half-time advantage. Stephen Coen had given Mayo the lead midway after Jack Carney brought them level.

Three-time All-Star Clifford missed the Munster final victory over Limerick last month with a calf injury but got 67 competitive minutes under his belt and scored 1-3, 1-1 of that coming from play. Another plus for Jack O'Connor charges was the outstanding performance in the middle of the park from Moran.

With an official attendance of 71,353 at GAA headquarters, conditions underfoot were slippy as Cillian O'Connor opened the scoring for Mayo and points from Clifford and Gavin White settled Kerry. Despite losing Aidan O'Shea to a black card, Horan's men remained in the hunt during a closely fought first-half.


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