Qualifier matches with Mayo always seem to be rollercoaster experiences and this was certainly the case with Saturday evening’s gripping Round 3 tussle against Armagh. Both sides gave it everything as they battled desperately to keep their Championship hopes alive but when the dust had settled it was Mayo who had emerged with the narrowest of wins.
In this episode of the Mayo News football podcast we bring you right into the heart of the action from MacHale Park. Co-hosts Rob Murphy and I take you through the match blow-by-blow, during which Rob also gets some in-game thoughts from former Mayo player and RTÉ co-commentator John Casey.
Post-match Rob catches up with Mayo News columnist Sean Rice, who seeks to put some perspective on how Mayo managed to survive this riveting contest.
Then Rob and I sit down with Edwin McGreal of the Mayo News to reflect back on the match and to discuss the post-match reaction from Mayo manager James Horan. We also hear get to hear post-game reaction from Mayo’s Colm Boyle and from Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney.
This latest episode of the Mayo News football podcast is now online and is available to listen to on iTunes, SoundCloud, Podomatic and Spotify. You can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website as well as here on the blog using the SoundCloud player below or the one on the panel on the right.
The Mayo News football podcast’s championship coverage this summer is proudly sponsored by J Streicher. “When it absolutely, positively has to be financed on Wall St.” Visit our website at www.jstreicher.eu.
Armagh were the best team I ve seen in McHale in years.. Speed & movement very impressive….their forwards could put serious pressure on any short kick outs.. But only upped the urgency in final few mins… But big positive for us is more of our lads are stepping up to the pitch of it… Really enjoyed last night. Great occasion …
listening to the podcast I kept hearing “the no luck thing” been mentioned. Mayo were very lucky last night. Mayo should be gone from the championship but we got lucky and we are still here. Echoes of 2017 come filtering through. Derry should have beaten Mayo. Cork felt hard done by. Roscommon should have beaten us too. Not to mention Clare. The list is now a statistic. We were robbed that year fair and square in the final. That fact has melted away like a March snow. Boylan used the car park as a training ground back intheday. Rough as fuck. Hard as nails. The harder the better. I don’t blame Horan for being annoyed. Injuries happen for the most innocuous of reasons. That’s just the nature of the game we love.
Did you not see what happened to Keegan on the same pitch they train on?. In full view of everybody? Was that Horan’s fault? Shit happens. Move on. It’s not helpful to focus on bad luck. You gotta draw positives. Everybody is trying hard. Positives for me are. We won a match we should have lost. Fionn Mc Donagh looks ready. Cillian is Back!. Nobody has giving that to much thread. I’ll hold tight there, or else I might start to get cynical. We are National league champions. It’s seems a long time ago now. Mayo bury the ball in the net instead of fisting over the bar.
We are still in this. Lets see who we draw Monday. We will get to go again.
Nice one Joseph!
Good man Joseph Ruane…yes indeed we have had our fair share of luck and tough luck but isn’t it great to be still looking forward to tomorrow. It’s awfully easy to be negative but do you think Armagh or Tyrone or Kerry would be beating themselves up if any of them had beaten us by a mangy point yesterday…ya right. We’re a bloody talented team of warriors. Take the risks, play the game and shag it we’ve suffered enough galling losses too on our journeys. Time to stand tall and like Katie Taylor, true champ that she is ask for more….is that the best you can give. Bring it on and let’s show that this Mayo team is like an Indian rubber ball…the harder you hit us the higher we bounce. Bounce on Mayo and believe. Never say no to another battle cause there’s a lot of men sitting in trenches all around Ireland who’d love to be in your position. You do yourselves and your county proud. Thanks and long may you continue. Maigheo go deo…
so we need to get Cavan tomorrow. Failing that, Cork.
One interesting sideline to tomorrow’s draw.
Laois and Meath, cannot be drawn together, having already met in the Leinster Championship.
So, put simply, it means that Meath can only play Mayo, Tyrone or Clare.
I don’t know how people can say Mayo we’re lucky we won because we worked damn hard all
Over the field and took our scores and took everything Armagh threw at us. Plus we lost Lee and Jason to
Injury so I don’t really believe luck was on our side Mayo made their own luck with fine scores from Coen Mc Laughlin and Fionn Mc Donagh. Well done on the podcast Willie Joe and Rob and the lads it’s always on the money roll on Morning Ireland and the draw
We can’t really draw parallels to 2017. We are in worse shape now injuries wise than we were in 2017. We are very thin in midfield in particular. Armagh exploited it yesterday and other teams will too, and probably to greater effect. Our full back line has lost a good bit of pace too. I don’t think I’ve seen as bad a run of games from Brendan Harrison as I saw the last few weeks.
Wouldn’t u think the draw would be on SG tonight when everyone is watching the highlights etc.
Instead they hold it early on a Monday morning when people or at work……go figure!
Great post Joseph Ruane. However, Id say Armagh couldn’t believe their luck after we went 5 points up and we did our damndest to let them back into it by throwing away silly possession and panicky play instead of closing it out!
Great podcast as usual, thoroughly enjoyable. Blood pressure went up again today listening even though I knew the outcome!
BTW The question of luck/no luck, good luck vs. bad luck applies squarely to the injury question. Only conclusion there is that we’ve been beset upon by more than our share to critical performers. And this feeling is amplified by last year’s casualties. I’ve placed a request or two to the man upstairs for some good luck tomorrow and a double portion this weekend.
Re: the best draw tomorrow
There are 2 ways to look at it i reckon.
Do you want the softest draw to just get you through the next round and worry about super 8s later?
If so Meath is surely the one you want there,leinster runners up usually a demoralised docket after Dublin humiliation. Plus despite then having a good league this generation of meath players has a really soft center. Think we would dispatch them with ease
However if you want the draw thats going to put you on the best super 8s run of fixtures then cavan is the one to get?
Would mean rossies in the first game (no way do they beat us twice in one year?). Potentially Cork in another winnable one before Dublin in a 3rd round when both teams might already be qualified. The other group is undoubtedly gonna be the group of death
Aside from the injuries we still find it very hard to close out games .Under no circumstances should we have let Armagh in with a chance of stealing victory but we did and why I don’t know there was plenty of lads there with experience to know what to do .
On a positive though I like how we now have lads I’m the forward line who can win their own ball when kicked into them and shoot on sight. Coen and Mcdonagh have really impressed me, two big lads who will win ball and are not afraid to take their scores and while for years this was our main issue we now have a problem with midfield and as was mentioned before we are definetly short on pace in the back line and I hate to say it but this I feel is where we will be found out at some stage and probably before a final . That won’t take anything away from our support it’s a delight to be able to support the lads despite the frustration they can cause us on occasion.
Thought to myself with 5 mins to go last night, I can’t do this anymore. Then the final whistle blew and you forget all about it and are jumping with pride, dying for the next game.
Great podcast as per usual, and all posts on the blog WJ. Never comment but enjoy this forum immensely. Thank you for all the work you put into it!
Onwards. Up Mayo!