The clocks have gone forward and, once again, the sun hasn’t set on Mayo’s long run in Division One of the League. It took two late, late points up in Ballybofey yesterday to earn us the draw that preserved our top tier status for another year and consigned Donegal to the drop instead.
This week’s edition of the Mayo News football podcast brings you all the action and reaction from MacCumhaill Park yesterday. Host Rob Murphy, Mayo News reporter Edwin McGreal and I describe the action from our vantage point on the terrace, following which Ed goes off to get post-match reaction from Stephen Rochford.
Back on the terrace, Rob and I are joined by Martin Carney, whose roots in both counties left him uniquely placed to give an even-handed assessment of the action. Then Eoin O’Donoghue, one of the young guns who stood up so well for us late on in the game, provides his post-match thoughts.
Out on the terrace once again, Ed re-joins the fun for more post-match chat, following which Rob gets in a huddle with Mayo fans Karol Mortimer, Denise Biggins and Anne-Marie Flynn to reflect on the game and the stress this Mayo team can put supporters’ hearts under at times. This jam-packed episode concludes with Billy Joe Padden chatting with Rob where he looks back at what was an up and down League campaign for us.
This latest edition of the podcast is now available to listen to on iTunes and SoundCloud and you can also listen to it directly on the Mayo News website and as well as here on the blog – just click the player below or the one on the sidebar to the right.
The Mayo News football podcast is sponsored by VaughanShoes.ie, the online shoe store with strong Mayo roots, global reach and free delivery throughout Ireland for online orders. NB Listen to this episode to find out the special time-limited discount code for online orders.
Just listening to the last few seconds of that podcast with the fantastic Mayo MAYO chant in the background, and can’t help but start imagining what we would be like if we actually won and All Ireland… We are a mad bunch, God love us! Great listening though!! Thanks Lads 🙂
Sinabhuil says:
March 23, 2018 at 3:26 pm
Lets lose the depression – that is not our style. We are mad we are Mayo.
Copy of my post on Friday. Lets not ruin our good work as supporters. Just do our own thing -forget Whelan, Hill16com or whatever their name us. Just do our own thing in our own mad kind of way!
Great day yesterday and such an important win. Well done Stephen and the lads. Lovely to see Boland, Hall, Coen and O’Donoghue all involved in the move to rescue us.
Just a note for season ticket holders. The scanners did not work in Castlebar last weekend. Everybody has been credited with attending whether they were there or not. Finally a break from the hardline approach taken where this common problems crops up
Tks to whoever did utube of Kevin’s magic point to Titanic music. I’ve replayed over and over.
We are a bit mad but love it and still living great moments in our gaa world.
Good result , great heart shown to pull it back in last few mins. Some awful soft missed goal chances when we were on top . Only got back in this morning so going to have to watch it back. I thought loftus had an absolute stormer . Playmaker role surely but to chip in with scores too obviously, he has that kick pass ability (must be a crossmolina thing) . Crowe did well , o donoghue good too and the point was outrageous. Mchloughlin take a bow lad ,off the right too , wtf like.
Job done , seven weeks to get it right now and I think we can give Galway a game of it. Connacht will be tough win , rossies improving all the time also. Would really love to see these bucks lift the nestor cup in Castlebar , I know most of ye still think theres only one prize worth winning but next year its away trips to Galway and ross with the strong possibility of a few retirements . Bring JJ Nestor home this year.
I see a lot of crying been done about Kevin’s so called 13 steps
People going way over the top. It was only 11 or 12 steps max!
Ya and it a Galway man doing all the crying
Unlucky for some
Which Galway man?
Brendan Tierney u will see all on twitter or go on donegal daily
Sean Cavanagh didn’t sound too happy on radio this morning and last week he was very quick to wroe Mayo off as heading for Division 2.
Not sure what his problem with us is? As one Tyrone fan told me last week, he will never forget the warm welcome they got in Mayo in their first game back after the sad death of Cormac McAnallen.
Fair play to the lads for sticking with it right to the end when Donegal had the advantage. McBrearty was better marshalled in the second half. Conor Loftus will now surely grow in confidence, as will all the younger players. That result for excitement must at least equal Rice College’s Connacht title triumph! Mayo are now in a good position, with experienced players like Keith and Donie soon to come back, and Lee back for super8. Hopefully, we’ll rattle the Dubs on Sunday. I’m not one for “putting up a good show” effort – has to be all duck or no dinner! I see Brolly has now trained his crossbow and arrows on Galway, and Comer in particular. Needs to get a life…
Man of Aran, brolly is a comedy sketch at this stage , everything he says is near ridiculous.
@Yew Tree, I heard Cavanagh say that the injuries Mayo picked up are a sign of too much mileage. Seemingly if Leeroy was 5 years younger he wouldn’t have dislocated his shoulder?
Good luck to Galw a on Sunday,we must support our neighbours,until we meet them and hopefully beat them
Who cares what Sean Cavanagh says or thinks about us? I have lost count now of the amount of times on here that people have being going on about him. Who gives a shit about what he has to say about us, I don’t anyway!
We have 7 weeks now to get fit and sharp for the Galway game. Maybe these club games in April could be a blessing in disguise to get some game time into the legs of the players who have being out for the past few months, lets hope to see these players lining out for their clubs.
For me anyway rather than worrying about Sean Cavanagh I reckon that one of the most important aspects that we need to work on is our team play in the final third of the field. Remember the lovely link up play between Conor Loftus, Cillian O’Connor and Andy Moran for our second goal against Kerry last year. That was great team play. You’d love to see more of that.
We had the following examples of poor team play yesterday:
1. Tom Parsons shooting for goal when he had Seamie O’Shea inside him.
2. Andy Moran fisting a point when he had Diarmuid O’Connor unmarked inside for a tap in goal.
3. Conor Loftus shooting for a goal when he had Paddy Durcan inside him.
There were other examples apart from these as well. The same thing happened against Kildare, us spurning great goal chances when a little bit more interplay would surely have seen us hit the back of the net a few more times.
When we were 5-1 ahead yesterday if we had banged in a goal or two the game could have turned into a similar one to the Kildare game for us. So that is something to improve on for the year ahead. We need to be more ruthless in those situations.
HSE – I believe Rochford is taking the squad away in April. Means they will possibly play one club game?
@Yew_tree, yeah you’d wonder if that training camp is still going ahead, there was a bit of an outcry about it when it was first mentioned so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. The Mayo News might have some info on that today.
I see that Colm Keys has reported that Brendan Harrison, Chris Barrett, Donal Vaughan and Keith Higgins are all expected back over the next two weeks, so that’s good to hear.
Corick Bridge I hope the Dubs beat the shite out of Galway. Both on the pitch and on the scoreboard. I would never support our biggest and smuggest rivals, not to mention the annoying neighbours with a massive asterix beside their Connacht title after we humiliated them.
Cavanagh cannot deal with the black card that he got in the quarter final a few years back.he knew it was the moment his career ended. Pity we are going to be looking and listening to him for years to come
I personally don’t want to see Galway win either on Sunday. We’re playing them in less than 7 weeks, I don’t want to see them coming to Castlebar full of confidence and swagger after just winning the league.
We can say what we want about the league not being important to us, but it is to a still young and developing team like Galway. It’s not the neighbourly thing to say, but all I’m interested in is Mayo and whatever improves our chances of winning on 13th May.
Same for the Rossies. They’re another of our main competition in Connacht, so I don’t want them flying before they (possibly) get to meet us.
Although with the Rossies, they’d probably get so carried away with any small success that they’d have the September homecoming planned and that big fucking bus re-painted.
The Hill
Mayo fans don’t get carried away with a very lucky win .
Defence was carved open for fifteen minutes in the first half and twenty minutes in the second half.
Midfield played second fiddle to Donegal all through the game.
Management have a lot to answer for why Nally, McDonagh are not being played is a mystery.
Last time Galway won the league in 81 Mayo abushed them in Castlebar. Wille Nallen controlled midfield for the first 40 minutes & then WJP CAMEin to finish the job.Mind you Kerry hammerd us i semi
@Michael Nally, I don’t think that any Mayo supporters are getting carried away, we know that there is plenty to work on before the Galway game.
Consider the following, we were missing five All-Star players: Lee, Cillian, Keith, Harrison and Barrett. We were also without Vaughan and Regan. Our first choice two midfielders, Parsons and Seamie are only back a few weeks after injuries and are still getting back up to speed, add to this Paddy Durcan who was also out for a few weeks after getting injured against Galway. That’s 10 players. Based on that, getting a draw in a very difficult place after being 3 behind in the closing stages was not a bad afternoon’s work I’d say.
In relation to Shane Nally, he started a couple of the early games and didn’t really stand out. In saying that I probably still would have liked to see him against Tyrone last week, especially when he had the wind in the second half as he might have popped over a few long range points when we were still in the game just after half-time.
We probably do need another option around midfield, in terms of mobility, remember we used Lee for that role against Roscommon in the drawn game last year when he scored 1-3, maybe we might have to do the same again this year. Dublin use James McCarthy in the same way.
In relation to Ger McDonagh, it seems that Caolan Crowe must be doing better in training at the moment as he is getting the start ahead of him. You couldn’t really fault Caolan’s display at the weekend.
As I said we have plenty to work on in terms of getting players back to fitness, sharpness etc. and we can see how Galway, Roscommon and Dublin shape up at the weekend and take it from there.
HSE,hopefully X Hanley,Evan Regan ,and certainly F Boland will be in the running for later in the summer,will be a lot tougher training sessions than Galway will put up
@corick bridge, unfortunately some people were saying the same thing in 2016 and 2017. Remember Michael Conroy said something like ‘The Galway players don’t believe that they can beat Mayo’ and James Horan said ‘The gap between Mayo and Galway is getting wider’ as we had won the 2016 U21 All-Ireland title.
In that 2016 game there was like a collective complacency among supporters and there was zero atmosphere in Castlebar which lead to a flat performance from our team. Some people on here were even saying that not one Galway player would get near to the Mayo starting 15.
There should be some atmosphere on the 13th of May in Castlebar and we’ll be well up for this game, both on the pitch and in the stand and on the terraces. Its something to really look forward to. Roll on the game!
I’ll never forget the 2016 atmosphere HSE. Truly awful. I couldn’t figure it out, during the parade I was doing the usual and I got some sideways looks. Jesus Christ, this is Mayo Galway in the championship, what the feck is wrong with ye!?!?
Is what I wanted to say!
Not this feckin time. I can feel the parade passing already. Let’s make it feckin mental
Yeah Mark, your right there, remember the weather was horrible too, it was like a winter’s day! The Saturday evening throw-in felt very strange too. As you said the place should be hopping this time in Castlebar!
I think I’ll be watching the titanic version of that wonder point for the next 7 weeks to keep me going when all is quiet here. How will we all survive?! Thank you Willie Joe for this Mayo football haven.