Ryan O'Donoghue stars as Mayo take care of business in New York

There was no repeat of last year's fairytale for New York as Mayo took care of business in Sunday’s sun-drenched Connacht SFC quarter-final at Gaelic Park with a 15-point win.

A new-look New York side were unable to match their heroics against Leitrim a year earlier and, despite their best efforts, they couldn't upset the odds against Kevin McStay’s seasoned squad.

Mayo’s attack was led by the outstanding Ryan O’Donoghue who produced a man of the match performance, shooting 1-13 (including 1-4 from open play) while Aidan O’Shea marked his 85th championship appearance (a new Mayo record) with an impressive display.

New York manager Alan O’Mara was only able to call on three of the players who started last year’s memorable penalty shoot-out victory due to a combination of retirements, work commitments, re-locations and injuries.
In fact, the Exiles were down a total of 17 players from last year’s squad.

The gulf in class was obvious, in particular, during the second quarter and Mayo had established a comfortable cushion by the break — leading by 1-11 to 0-02, with O’Donoghue accounting for 1-9 of that tally.

But, to New York’s credit, their heads never dropped and two superb second half goals from playmaker Frank O’Reilly and full-back Jamie Boyle were no more than they deserved.

Goalkeeper Joey Grace (20), who was lining out in the position for the first time, also enhanced his reputation with a fine display, making a string of good stops to deny goals for the likes of Paul Towey and Aidan O’Shea.

With Mayo supporters travelling to the United States in their thousands for the weekend, a capacity crowd turned out at the home of New York GAA.

But once Ryan O’Donoghue hit the homeside’s net in the 21st minute, Kevin McStay’s team