The team for tomorrow evening’s Connacht U20 football final at Tuam Stadium (7.30pm) was named earlier this evening. It’s the same team that started the semi-final against Sligo last week and here it is:
Mayo (Connacht U20 final v Galway 10/7/2019): Jamie McNicholas (Kiltimagh); Jack Coyne (Ballyhaunis), Rory Brickenden (Westport), Oisín Mullin (Kilmaine); Aaron McDonnell (Ballinrobe), Conor Beirne (Breaffy), Eoghan McLaughlin (Westport); Evan O’Brien (Ballinrobe), Gavin Durcan (Castlebar Mitchels); John Gallagher (Mayo Gaels), Paul Towey (Charlestown), Paddy Goldrick (Charlestown); Aiden Orme (Knockmore), Stephen McGreal (Claremorris), Tommy Conroy (The Neale).
The Galway team was also named tonight – full details here.
This match has all the makings of a cracking provincial decider. So much so that I’ve decided to hop into the car myself tomorrow and take the motorway west for it. That means I’ll have a post-match audio report from Tuam Stadium and a short match report up the blog before I point the car back in the direction of the M17 later tomorrow evening.
Best of luck to Mike Solan and his young charges in this Connacht decider.
Important game tonight. A win here could, ultimately, be more important than a win on Sunday.
I hope Eoghan McLoughlin is fit. I think he has the pace to mark Matthew Tierney. The other option to mark Tierney is Oisin Mullin.
I think Mayo have the better forward line and can win this in what is usually a tight game.
Big ask for this mayo team to beat a very fancied Galway side. Two years ago in Mchale Park, Galway destroyed us at under 18 level, with one Evan Murphy pulling the strings for Galway. I know that the personnel on both teams have changed substantially, but Galway seem to have the stronger team. However, this mayo team are in form and like the seniors, if we convert our chances, there will be little between them. Know there is a huge south mayo crowd hopping over the border this evening, best of luck mayo
Really looking forward to this game. Hopefully a big Mayo support will be there. Best of luck to the lads.
Connacht gaa twitter said tickets for tonight’s game are available at usual centra & supervalue stores. I tried centra this morning and Mayo game wasn’t available. The Munster U20 game was available but not the Connacht U20 game.
Did Anybody get tickets from Centra or Supervalue?
At under 18 level two years ago Mayo were missing:
– Evan O’Brien (Strongest midfielder injured)
– Oisin Mullin (Strongest defender injured)
– John Gallagher (One of the better forwards injured)
Eoghan McLoughlin was not involved at the time, now one of the stronger u20s defenders.
Aidan Orme was not involved, now one of the stronger u20s forwards.
Ciaran Gavin was not involved, now one of the stronger subs
Mayo have developed a habit of developing much stronger post u17/18 I believe.
What’s the story with Lambert? Looked to be a serious player last year. Is he still in the squad?
Yes, Lambert, and what about Jordan Flynn, whether over or under age??
Best of luck to the U-20’s it would be some achievement to have beaten Galway across the three tiers in a week. Anyone know if there is an online stream of the match this evening?
Jordan Flynn is overage he is an U21.
Paul Lambert is overage he is an U21, I watched him in the Aghamore Westport championship game and he looks a player who can carry the ball with electric pace and make things happen. He is an exceptional passer of the ball. Against the wind he did a kind of side volley 25 yard straight as an arrow floating pass.
Pat Lambert, Pauls younger brother is in the squad and is more of a play making and scoring skillful forward. I think Pat will go up a level again next year as he is still u19. Pat has a great football brain on his shoulders and skill/pace to go with it.
@Rober , Great to see so many players from South Mayo .. All the hard work being done at underage club level is paying off . Well done and best of luck to the lads and management
A squad constructed from our 2015/2016/2017 minor teams that were knocked out early and there was a lot of woah me the sky is falling down at the time. I believe below is a strong team and shows the important of the u19/u20 two year span.
GK – Jamie McNicholas/Paddy OMalley
FB Line – Oisin Mullin, Brian O’Malley, Rory Brickendon, Cathal Horan
HB Line – Paul Lambert, Donovan Cosgrave, Sharoize Akram, Eoghan McLoughlin
MF – Gavin Durcan, Evan O’Brien, Jordan Flynn
HF Line – Fionn McDonagh, Ryan O’Donoghue, Oisin McLoughlin
FF Line – Aidan Orme, James Carr, Tommy Conroy, Conor Diskin
Preview of the game from 45 mins in
https://soundcloud.com/bcrfm/ah-raf-show-3?fbclid=IwAR1url-MmWdXaxOrAP7ouKgZFZQQlo8bpEcFqn-nj02v_xUGF2WyS47hhP0
Looking forward to tonight. Two great wins against Galway in the last week. If we can gain parity at midfield we have a great chance. Galway very dependent on Matthew Tierney & Datragh Silke for scores. Hopefully Eoghan McLauglin & Oisin Mullin can keep them quiet. I share a few thoughts on the game from 45mins in on the following show.
https://soundcloud.com/bcrfm/ah-raf-show-3
Anyone know if there is a stream/broadcast available of this game tonight?.
I can really recommend the Ah Ref podcast. Especially on club stuff. We all know of Ah ref but the other contributor Enda Mc is exceptionally knowledgable on the club scene and players as well. He also has a skillful ability to sum up a player in a short sentence or two.
My favourite moment was Kevin Filan clarifying if a drink was gone in Supermacs in Ballindine haha. That’s raw radio broadcasting at it’s finest 🙂
Is this game available to stream like the minor game last week?
Trust me – this Galway team (while not a bad side at all) is nowhere near what it’s being hyped up to be. The main reason for this is because Pj is the manager. If Stephen Joyce was over them – as he was at minor – there would be no talk about them.
As mentioned previously – Tierney and Silke are the main men although Silke was held scoreless from play against Ros.
The rest of the forwards are average enough.
At minor two years ago we were knocked out in the quarter final by Cavan.
Mayo at 2/1 is a brilliant price to be honest – I fancy ye to win this one.
@Galwayman, 2/1 does look fairly chunky on Mayo alright. I would have this marginally in Mayo’s favour.
Galway in Tuam and having had a good John Kerins tournament is good lead in pedigree.
But on the flipside, Mayo destroyed Roscommon, but flipside again Roscommon are a tough team in Kiltoom.
There is F…. details when herself comes home.
Good to see you on here Inbetweener, it’s been a while since you posted i think!.
Any details of streams would be most welcome.
Looking forward to tonight’s game will take a run down to it myself. Galway fancy themselves as All lreland contenders so a win will be all the more sweeter. Looks a well balanced side and a decent bench which could be the winning of this game
Yep, heading to tuam this eve. A win would be great but I really hope to see 3 or 4 lads who really stand out for us as having the potential to make the step up to senior in the next year or two. The way the game has gone, if you are a very good u20 player you should be making some inroads onto the senior panel the following year (assuming it’s that players last season underage).
This eve is a huge test too for Mike Solan. Best of luck to them all. He didn’t have a good day at all on the line v kildare last year (which he’s probably sick of hearing about) so here’s hoping he makes the right calls tonight. We are all behind them.
Solan sure didn’t have his best day on the sideline vs Kildare, thats for sure. That was a very good Kildare team though, who were rightly favourites.
Our backs were left horribly exposed and Kildare made hay (particularly that lad Hyland) in the first half. I think young Maughan got injured early and I’m not sure if that wasn’t spotted or he was just left on too long but some adjustments certainly needed to be done sooner. Second half was better but there was too much to do at that point.
The red mist that descended on one of our lads near the end didn’t help our cause either.
Wet day here what’s it like in tuam have to listion to it on midwestradio
Soggy enough in Tuam too.
Gabh mo leithsceal no livestream…thought there would be since minors last week was on. Midwest it has be for tonight
Cheers to all!
Any stream going?
Im hoping Galway can get the win tonight but I understand they were poor against Roscommon so who knows. Mayo would be slight favourites but with PJ in charge at least we will be playing nice football.
is there a cheesier phrase in GAA commentary than referring to a player as a “unit” or a “big unit”.
JP, thanks for responses on Jordan Flynn and Paul Lambert.
The lads are struggling at the moment. Mountain to climb in the second half.
0-10 to 0-4 down at half-time. We were wasteful in possession in that half and coughed up so much ball, often under no real pressure. Galway are way more clinical in front of the posts.
Wow. Its HT. Flat. Nothing. No shape.
I hope it’s ‘a game of two halves’ for us cos that was fairly woeful stuff. No composure. Heaps of turnovers. No support play. Our full back line are doing ok but have no one to pass to. Very high risk passing all over the field. Final ball, on the rare occasion we get into the final 3rd is poor.
Hoping for a vast improvement 2nd half.
Very poor Mayo performance. Galwsy crowd loving it. Gives them hope for the future.
Serious talent coming through in Galway , I’d be livid if k Walsh is left at the helm if I were Galway buck. The absolute style of their footballers coming through is savage . That minor FF last week too is the pick of minors this year .
Hard luck to our lads. Seemed to finish strong enough. Well done Galway.
Random question: what happened to Jordan Flynn? I know he was suspended for some time, but I would’ve thought it’d be over by now.
Overage
We were awful. Technically and strategically way off the required level.
The only players who were any use for me were Mullen, Durcan and Conroy. Our half back line did nothing and our half forward line same.
So disappointing. Ciaran Gavin needed to be brought in way earlier.
Sad thing is that we seemed to make it easy for Galway by turning over so much ball to them. I felt we missed a real chance in the first half when we were 3-2 down and kicked 5 consecutive wides in a row. Then to compound that, we gifted them two silly points, one from a cheap turnover and the other from a soft free. Instead of being maybe 3-5 up we were 5-2 down.
To be fair, that Galway attack are clinical and Joyce is going to do well with that group.
10 or 11 of Mayos starting 15 played on the u17 and u18 teams from 2017 that lost by 8 pts and 13 pts respectively to Galway, so its a small improvement I suppose. I would be worried that Galway seem to be producing more marquee players than Mayo.
Management will be very disappointed. So many of the team didn’t look mentally tuned in or ‘up for it. Overall the team looked very unprepared. So many handling errors and players not making the right moves. Galway on the other hand were the complete opposite. Good movement. Better handling and aggressive.
U20 experience of last two years would make me very wary of giving Solan a chance at senior. Think we made the right call last Autumn
If we are to remain a top team in the country in the coming years we really need to be putting back to back provincial titles at this grade. This game was way more important barometer than the U17 game last Friday. We risk seeing Galway pull well ahead of us at Senior level in three to four years time with this serious pool of young talent that they have been constantly producing in recent years.
Well I called that totally wrong.
Good result for our lads – the result wasn’t really in much doubt at any stage of the second half as we were at least 6 up for the whole half apart from a minute or two at the very end of the game when it was 15-10.
Interesting to see how they get on now.