As the lads over on the excellent Club Mayo Dublin site have already pointed out, the achievement last Sunday of our minors in landing the county’s first Connacht title at this level since 2001 was largely overshadowed by what happened in the senior final. I meant to include a mention of the minors’ triumph myself but, like everyone else, my attention remained focused on the senior match.

It was obviously a match we could well have lost and had Roscommon been able to take advantage of the many chances that they created – their 14 wides tells its own story – they probably would have kept us waiting at least another twelve months for provincial silverware at this level. The real turning point in the match came around ten minutes from the end when the Sheepstealers won what looked to be quite a soft penalty but Robert Hennelly made a fine save from Dara Lennon’s spot kick.

The minors now head for the All-Ireland series where, in the quarters, they’ll face one of the beaten finalists from one of the other provinces. While there’s still a fair bit of football to be played in this particular championship, it would be great – with Roscommon and Galway having won the All-Ireland at this grade over the past two years – to see Ray Dempsey’s lads go on to clinch a minor three-in-a-row for the West.