Derry spot on when it mattered to see off Mayo

A knock-out championship match that ebbed and flowed relentlessly for more than more than 100 minutes was finally settled by the last kick of a penalty shoot-out in front of 13,955 spectators in Castlebar, with Derry advancing past Mayo after finished level after extra-time.

This All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final was hanging in the balance right until the moment that Derry's Conor Doherty slotted his team’s fifth penalty kick past Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape.

The ball hitting the net was the cue for Doherty and his Derry team-mates to celebrate a famous victory for Mickey Harte’s team as they booked their place in next weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-finals at Mayo’s expense.

The homeside were left heartbroken after seeing victory slip through their fingers at the end of normal time; a Ryan O’Donoghue penalty had helped Mayo to lead by 1-8 to 0-10 five minutes into added time and Kevin McStay’s men seemed set to see the game out.

However, they allowed Derry to engineer one last attack and veteran full-back Chrissy McKaigue popped up to palm over an equalising score to send an enthralling contest to extra-time.

Under the MacHale Park floodlights, which had to be switched on due to the dark and dreary conditions, the Oak Leaf county had the better of the early exchanges in extra-time.

Early points from the outstanding Brendan Rogers and the influential Ethan Doherty (2) left the underdogs ahead by 0-14 to 1-9 at the interval.
But Mayo were in no mood to give in and the second half of extra-time was as frantic as it was tense with the Westerners reeling Derry back in thanks to scores from substitute Paul Towey and Conor Loftus that set up a grandstand finish.

Shane McGuigan also landed a superb score down at the other end as both