The All-Ireland quarter-final fixtures have just been announced and, in a welcome development, our minors and seniors will both feature on the same card at Croke Park this coming Saturday.
The minors go into battle first, with throw-in in their quarter-final against All-Ireland champions Tipperary set for 3pm. The seniors are on next, with a 5pm start for our first ever championship clash with Down. The fun doesn’t stop there (unless, I guess, we lose either or both of the matches we’re involved in) because the Dubs are on after that, with their quarter-final against Laois getting underway at 7pm. It’s like the Electric Picnic for football or something: lots of football at any rate.
The two quarter-finals in the other half of the draw have also been fixed for the following day at HQ, with Cork playing Kildare at 2pm while the clash of the round between Kerry and Donegal throws in at 4pm. Opening the fun that day will be the minor quarter-final between Roscommon and Kerry which gets going at midday.
That will leave tickets a bit scarce. It,s a bit late late as well if you have to travel back to mayo with a carload of kids!!
Indeed – tickets will be a concern. I wonder if they will have any on sale on the day. If they do we should be ok as the Dubs won’t in be in for our game. Tough to call this one. Down had a good rebound against Tipp and that will help them regain their confidence in a big way.
Tickets won’t be a concern. There will be no more than 60k there.
This is a really tough game for us. Down really toyed with us at times in Castlebar the last two years
Agree with stone cold.tough game.think we have enough but no loose talk needed.
Down looked fragile enough v Donegal, their heads dropped fairly handy, a good start could be the key to this one.
It’s going to be a battle against Down. They are a decent team, there is no doubt about that but I think Saturdays game will be physical and that could suit us. The down midfield of rogers and king are big strong men and I can see Barry Moran and geraghty starting in the middle with Aidan o Shea helping out at 11. With Vaughan at centre back we have a strong diamond and we will be able to mix it with them. There won’t be much between the teams at the end. If the Mayo forwards click and Cillian is in the full forward line with andy Moran we should make some inroads. Nothing is going to be easy though.
It’s a balls really that the game is at 5pm on a Saturday. Many people have to work on Saturdays and it’s daft that there is no game on the bank holiday Monday. Most people have bank holidays off! Anyone else a a bit peeved at this???
patriot, im very peeved… happen to be working at the galway races all week, hoping i can shneak away to a TV for an hour! should mayo win i’ll be extra peeved as electric picnic is on the same weekend as that semi final… life is tough.
i have gone through the games Down have played in the championship so far mainly through youtube starting with the Fermanagh game, my analysis is quite simple, this is not a good Down side, very average, they can leave spaces, they don’t look all that tough either tbh.
If Mayo can produce a performance like they did this time last year v Cork, we will win this at a canter, call me cocky or whatever but i don’t rate this Down team. It’s all on the day though , we could do with a couple of the forwards finding their shooting boots, i don’t doubt any of their potential right down to J. Docherty who is getting a bit of flak of late, all it takes is a couple of good scores and confidence gets a boost, the ability is in everyone of them.
Reading about the easy path Dublin have to the final, and how they avoided the tougher side of the draw. The other side is tougher, but we have every chance of taking both Down and Dublin/Laois. Laois like us last year against Cork will be delighted at being overlooked. Mayo can benefit from this focus on Dublin, we need big performances.
Tickets are now on sale on http://www.tickets.ie
Also posted this on the Maurice Deegan ref thread – is anyone else having trouble buying tickets on tickets.ie at the moment?
I’ve made three attempts now to buy a ticket for Saturday and every time I get as far as the ‘Reserving your tickets – do not navigate away from your screen’ message on the orange background – so I wait, and then suddenly it just displays a list of upcoming events (https://www.tickets.ie/events.aspx), as if I’d never tried to buy a ticket at all. Very frustrating, and doubly so as I can’t get them on ticketmaster either! Anyone else seeing this?
Davy – I don’t know if this helps but if you want to get your tickets the old-fashioned way, the arrangements for doing so via the County Board are here.
Cheers WJ – as I’ve posted on the other thread, I’ve got sorted via TicketMaster now. Thanks though.
Good to hear that, Davy. Hopefully it’ll be a day to enjoy!
Was there an A v B game at the weekend? Sure i read somewhere there was going to be one this weeekend.
Interested if anyone has a take on Season Ticket Seat Allocation. Got and email there saying: “Your Season Ticket tickets will be allocated to you on Wednesday.”
If tickets are on sale already, and my ticket will only be allocated on Wednesday, does that not mean the best seats will be sold before they allocate mine?
I’ve been suspect on the quality of the seats the season tickets have allocated so far this year, Hyde Park excepted.
digits in fairness the “block ” of seats are probably already allocated
I have a season ticket and had great seats for league semi and final (around halfway in lower cusack, well back), so I’d be expecting similar again for Sat.
305/306 lower cusack is reserved for season ticket holders, anyone that opts out of the match, their seats will go on general sale.
If Mayo are good enough they should reach the final. Down are not as good as two years ago and Dublin don’t have the same drive as last year.Cork,Kildare,Donegal,Kerry all on the side of the draw gives Mayo a great chance to reach their first final for 6 years.
Up hill task for the Minors probably would have a better chance v Tipp if it wasn’t played in Croke park.