DOWN ARE PAST THEIR CILL BY DATE.

Byline: FRANCIS MOONEY

ALL-IRELAND MINOR FOOTBALL SEMI-FINAL Down 0-9 Mayo 2-9 TWO-GOAL hero Cillian O'Connor inspired Mayo to victory over Down and to their second successive All-Ireland minor final at Croke Park.

O'Connor struck twice in the space of three minutes early in the second-half to end Down's bid to make it an all-Ulster decider. Now it's the Connacht champions who go through to meet Armagh next month.

The Mourne teenagers looked well on their way to victory after they dominated the first-half, but they should have led by more than two points at the interval, and paid the price to the fired up Westerners after the break.

Goalscorer O'Connor will grab the headlines this morning, but goalkeeer Michael Slingermann was the real hero of this Mayo success, denying the Ulster runners-up with a string of marvellous saves.

And the workrate of the Mayo defence, in which Shane McDermott and Keith Rogers excelled, made a massive contribution, conceding just two points in the entire second half.

Keith Quinn and Niall McParland quickly established a foothold in midfield which even the move of Mayo skipper Aidan Walsh from full forward failed to break.

But Down failed to capitalise on many of the openings they created against a nervous western defence.

Apart from Caolan Mooney, who swung over a couple of delightful efforts from play, and Ross McGarry, they lacked a cutting edge to complement their creativity.

Centre back Ciaran McClean snuffed out some promising Mayo attacks, but the Connacht attacks insistence on over-playing the ball cost them scores.

Nevertheless, they were still very much in contention at the break, just two points behind at 0-7 to 0-5, after Walsh had kicked all but one of their scores from frees.

They also had goalkeeper Slingermann to thank for keeping them in the game with two timely interventions.

First he dived smartly to his left to keep out a skidding shot from Fergal McEvoy, and later displayed immaculate judgement in advancing off his line to deny McGarry.

O'Connor stunned the northerners with two goals in the space of three minutes at the beginning of the secondhalf.

The first was a sublime effort, steered beyond the despairing reach of goalkeeper James Deeny off the outside of his right boot, the second an opportunist finish after Deeney had saved from substitute Jack McDonnell.

The Mourne lads also crafted a glorious goal chance, but once again Slingermann responded, saving brilliantly from McParland, with Matthew Bagnall lashing the rebound into the side netting, inset.

It wasn't until the 47th minute that wing back McEvoy shot Down's first score of the second-half, but in the meantime Slingermann had performed further heroics, chiefly with another brilliant save from substitute Ryan O'Hare.

DOWN: J Deeny, R Doran, S McNamee, D O'Hanlon, K McClorey, C McClean, F McEvoy (0-1), K Quinn, N McParland, C Clarke, R White, C Mooney (0-3), D McKibben, R McGarry (0-5, 2f, 1 '45), M Bagnall.

Subs: R O'Hare for Bagnall, M Haughey for Clarke, P Quinn for McKibben, K Maguire for Deeny MAYO: M Slingerman, D Gavin, K Rogers, M Walsh, C Charlton, S McDermott, C Crowe, D Kirby, A Walsh (0-6, 6f), A Farrell, D Coen (0-1), F Durkin, D Herbert, C O'Connor (2-0), A Corduff (0-1).

Subs: I Costello for Herbert, J McDonnell for Coen, J Carney (0-1) for Corduff, B Ruttledge for Durkin.

CAPTION(S):

TUSSLE Down's Kevin McClorey and Fergal Duncan of Mayo