I’m down in Mayo for a family funeral tomorrow so this’ll have to be a quick one. Myself and The Brother drove down from Dublin in blustery conditions this afternoon, the countryside awash with the whitethorn blooming magnificently everywhere and the roads littered with far from blooming magnificent Sunday drivers. Michael O’Muircheartaigh was giving it socks on the radio from Brewster Park but the match we were most interested to hear about was the one taking part over in Ruislip, where Sligo began their Connacht title defence against London.
The Magpies won at a canter today, their sixteen-point victory margin equaling that recorded by Galway over the Rossies last weekend. Although beating London is never much of a boast – even if, as Sligo did today, you manage to knock up a score of 2-17 against them – the win today in Ruislip will have done the Connacht champions no harm at all. It’ll certainly help them to forget about their dreadful league campaign and to get their heads into the proper frame of mind before 22nd June.
The closer this game gets, the more I think we could be in for a difficult afternoon at McHale Park the next day. Sure, we should beat them with a bit to spare and if we can get a hold around midfield early on and the forwards start to click, we should have too much in the tank for them. If, however, they’re still in the hunt with ten minutes to go, we could find ourselves under real pressure to dig out a result.
Hi Will (or do you prefer Willie),
I was born in England, but i am Irish (take that Roy Keane and stick it where the sun don’t shine! sorry about that).
Anyway, i’m a Soccer supporter first and foremost (The Arsenal for my sins & the Republic of course).
But, i’ve seen a few GAA games and i’ve adopted Mayo as my GAA team (that comes from my Dear Dad who was born there, but who sadly passed away about 17 months ago now).
So, still new to the game really, but must find out where in this country i can see the match on the 22nd June.
Do you fancy Mayo to get through this one with ease?
B Regards
John B
I agree with you totally WJ. Sligo are the reigning Connacht Champions. Also this year becasue of the screw up in the GAA they are out of the championship if they lose! Very unfair – whats the point of a backdoor if you don’t even get to benefit of it? Into the T. Murphy cup!!
No satisfaction there … so … in otherwords there will be and is serious motivation for the Yeats Men.
Hi John B
Welcome to the delusional world inhabited by us poor Mayo supporters!
Your Dad, God rest him, obviously didn’t give you the full story about the county team and how we’re waiting since 1951 (when Arsene Wenger was just two years old) for our fourth All-Ireland. But, now that you’re one of the chosen, you’ll already be confident – like the rest of us – that deliverance is close at hand.
The Sligo match isn’t live on the box over here but I don’t know what the story is with the UK rights. I think Setanta still have the rights to those games but I couldn’t be certain. It’s possible that the match will be shown live in the pubs over there but you’d probably be in a better position to find this out.
You could, of course, fly over to Knock for the weekend and catch the action live in Castlebar. They’re really is no substitute for the seeing the action in the flesh.
This could, I think, be an awkward game for us. We’d always consider ourselves well capable of beating Sligo (think Arsenal v West Ham) but, now and again, they manage to beat us (think Arsenal v West Ham!).
It’s an odd one this time, as our form is uncertain, their league form earlier in the year was terrible but they’re still the defending Connacht champions and their team is virtually unchanged from last year. I think we should win, though not with ease, I fear.
All the best
WJ (or Willie Joe or whatever you’re having yourself)