Mayo finish strongly to get the better of Armagh

Five points without reply in the closing stages propelled unbeaten Mayo to their third successive victory of an impressive Allianz Football Division 1 campaign at Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon this afternoon.

The Westerners finished like a train to overtake an Armagh side who failed to score in the last ten minutes, and saw their three point lead wiped out in the closing stages.

The result means that Mayo are now firmly in contention for a place in the league decider with three rounds still to play, while Armagh sit just behind them in third place in the table.

The Orchard County had got off to a dream start with a goal in the opening moments from Ciaran Mackin after his attempt for a point seemed to loop over the head of Mayo goalkeeper Rory Byrne, who started in place of the injured Rob Hennelly.

That put Kieran McGeeney's team in the driving seat for the majority of the game and they looked set to clock up their third win of the campaign when then led by 1-10 to 0-10 swinging into the final ten minutes.

However, despite playing against the breeze, Mayo rallied and scores from Ryan O’Donoghue (two frees) and Paddy Durcan hauled them level.

With the momentum behind them, and Armagh’s challenge fading, last year’s All-Ireland finalists went ahead through Jordan Flynn on 69 minutes before Paddy Durcan added an insurance score during the five minutes of additional time that was played.

Such an outcome had looked unlikely when Mayo were rocked by Armagh’s early goal.

The Ulster men also led by 1-03 to 0-01 after 10 minutes thanks to well-taken points against the breeze from Jason Duffy, Stefan Campbell and Rory Grugan.Mayo finally got into the groove thanks to three scores in quick succession from Ryan O’Donoghue, Mattie Ruane and