Our second FBD match takes place this coming Sunday at Charlestown where we face IT Sligo (not Sligo IT, as I’ve incorrectly been calling them since, I guess, the inception of this site) in what the Red Tops could, if they decided to focus on the FBD, label as a mouth-watering, top-of-the-table (the Section A table, like), winner-takes-all showdown.
Seeing as we both won our opening matches in the FBD last weekend, the winners at Fr O’Hara Park on Sunday can, I suppose, start looking forward to an appearance in the FBD final next month but both sides are, of course, thinking more about other challenges that lie ahead. The students are about to face into the Sigerson and our lads are gearing up for what’s likely to be a searching NFL campaign (and that’s before we even start to think about the summer action).
On that note, Johnno’s post-match comments (handily linkable via this story in Hogan Stand) in which he explained why he’d decided to go somewhat nuclear with his team selection for the NUIG match last Sunday were, I thought, quite illuminating. Johnno said, quite simply, that “we needed match practice for guys that will be playing in the national league” but he did also point out that “other fellas will get game time” in the remaining two FBD matches. None of this would have been a problem, of course, had we just ignored the pre-Christmas training ban like everyone else but I think that particular issue has been well enough aired at this stage so let’s not go there again (sez he going there again).
Whatever about the need to gird our loins ahead of our upcoming clash with the Fat Controller’s new charges at McHale Park at the start of next month, it would, I think, be good to see more experimentation in our line-up over the next two weeks. For starters, we could do a whole load worse than check out a few alternative options at corner-back, where the apparent incumbency of Donal Vaughan and Keith Higgins isn’t one to inspire confidence in our ability to keep the umpires from reaching for their flags on an all too regular basis. Neither should we be too concerned about building up an unbeaten run going into the NFL: much as I like winning streaks, even I can see it would be slightly OTT to view the FBD as an end in itself.
Sunday’s match at Charlestown will give us (well, those of you who will be at it – I’ll be on the couch rebeaming PJ’s text messages to the world and humming along to Dr Hook) an early chance to see the gimp of a few of the Sligo lads who are likely to be facing us for real at Markievicz Park in early June. Lads like Stephen Coen, Gary Gaughan and Mayo native Alan Costello (who last year declared for the Yeats County) should be worth keeping an eye on as well as the two Mayo lads on the IT Sligo team, Crossmolina’s Sean Kelly and Aghamore’s Alan Freeman. Throw-in at Fr O’Hara Park is at 2 pm on Sunday.
Elsewhere, I see that Liam McHale is bigging us (well, sort of) to do well this year, providing we play to our potential. That’s kinda obvious, isn’t it? If we play shite, we’re not really going to do well but if we play well, then we might. I should go into football management, I think.
Willie Joe ,
Just want to give the lads the benefit of my last few weeks of reading to say that unlimited heartbreak book turned out to be an absolute cracking read, It is basically just verbatim interviews with all the protaganists with occasional sparse commentary from the author himself..
Its not comparable to the Kings of september in that that book is a marvellous tale well told, or to the waterford footballers book as in that case the writer actually placed himself centrally in the story but if you want to read about missed chances , what might have beens , feuds, power struggles an dhear no holds barred opinions then get this book . I loved it !
Thanks for the recommendation, Roger – it’s one I just haven’t got round to getting yet but I do intend to read it, all the more so in light of what you’ve said about it. By the way, I spoke on the phone the other week with the guy who collected all the results that were used by Henry Martins in the book. He put these results (Limerick’s hurling championship results from 1929 to 2009) together in a booklet of his own – which is a bit like the upcoming one that Mick Byrne and Donal O’Donoghue are doing on the Mayo results (more on that anon) – and the title he has for this booklet is superb: From the Great Depression to NAMA!
cracking title alright.
Need Another Mayo All-ireland….
Any team announced for Sunday or do they normally leave it until the day itself in the FBD ?
From what I gather it’ll be an on the day job – it is only the FBD after all!
they have announced the panel of 25 apparently – it’s listed on http://www.clubmayo.ie in any case – but usual form is no team lineout till sunday.
Does anyone know if the game will be live on Midwest, or will it just be occasional updates?
Midwest don’t do full live commentaries for the FBD matches, Dan – all you get are updates from the various games interspersed with a whole load of middle-of-the-road 1970s and ’80s music. I expect to be on the receiving end of a torrent of texts from Charlestown, however, and I’ll be putting them on the site via Twitter throughout the game, if that’s any use to you.
Good man, cheers WJ
Willie Joe dont worry about fancy names. Once upon a time U.C.G was just that…U.C.G. Then it became NUIG, then Ollscoil Na Gaillamhe. So Sligo IT or IT Sligo, or the Regional Tech Sligo makes no difference. We have DIT, DCU, MICE, CIT,TCD etc. Where did Bolton St go to or did they succumb to the curse of initials also. Once they let the guards into the Sigerson I gave up on all that rubbish.