Photo: Irish Times/Inpho
One of the real bright spots from our encouraging display down in Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday was the shift put in by Tom Parsons at midfield. The Charlestown man, who was starting a match for us for the first time since the League game against Derry at MacHale Park last April and who last featured off the bench against Kerry in Limerick last August, was prominent throughout yesterday against Cork, winning loads of possession around the middle and kicking three glorious points from play.
He wins our MOTM award from this game with a fair amount to spare, claiming a whopping 63% of the vote. Others who attracted support in this week’s poll were Aidan O’Shea, whose tireless performance gained him 11% of the vote, Ger Cafferkey, who kept Cork dangerman Colm O’Neill scoreless from play and garnered 7% of the vote and Mickey Conroy whose 30-second cameo earned him 6% of the popular vote (which works out at around 0.2% of the vote for every second he was on the field yesterday). Well done to all of them.
Just off the phone with a cork man, he was singing Toms praise, and says he can’t understand how Mayo are followed by so many from the county to the other end of the country in March. Fair play to those fans for making the journey, it has to be noticed by the lads wearing the green and red on the pitch and can only be a help
Fair play to Tom Parsons who has suffered more ups and downs than most in his football career and keeps coming back.
Looking at the voting for man of the match since it was introduced there seems to be a lot of very loyal girlfriends and mammies around – and maybe a few sisters too. Fair play to them too.
What chancers voted for Conroy?? Congrats to Tom, stormer of a Performance
Well done Tom! Keep up the good work…
Watched the highlights reel last night. Parsons kicked some fine points and looked very impressive throughout. Aidan O’Shea also showed well (again) and it should be acknowledged that he’s had a fine start to the season. He’s been carrying us through many of the games so it was heartening to see a couple of our stalwarts like Vaughan and Dillon begin to contribute again.
There was a definite foul in the build up to their goal at the death. One of the Mayo defenders was clearly dragged back and impeded from making a challenge – I think WJ mentioned this earlier. Too little too late but at least Higgins reward was to put Hurley on the deck. We were very naive for that score – attacker should have been felled long before the ball got near our 21.
Cynical but where the game is at. Kerry et al wouldn’t let you within an asses roar of the goal in the same position.
I did`nt make it to the game in Cork last Sunday so I `watched it ` on the radio. It
reminded me of the first match commentary I heard as a kid on Radio Eireann back in `67
Everyone had gathered in the kitchen because it was the Connaught semi-final against
Galway who were three times all Ireland champs. There was a giddyness about the
house that evening when the final whistle blew. I think everyone felt we had restored
pride in the jersey that day.
And yet I was more proud of our team last Sunday than I have ever been. ALL of
them. Supporters included. They/ we will never say die. Never.
Think we need to beat Donegal – and with a good, solid performance. Especially after already having had 2 pastings in Castlebar from Tyrone and Dublin.
So, not with the main objective of reaching semis – which to me is not all that important – but rather that we need the win for our own confidence.
If we end up in semis so be it. But winning that. may not be the be-all and end-all either. I think a good performance there too, regardless of result, while continuing giving good game time to those who need the experience, is most important thing.
And if it’s the Dubs, it will be a good opportunity to restore pride – and put an awful lot more emphasis on our defensive game.
So let’s take Donegal for starters on Sunday, with a good display.
And go from there!
Great to see Tom back and playing well but lets not get too carried away. We all want to see him push on now, stay injury free and continue his good form.
I listened to Joe Brolly’s radio rant podcast which you can listen too here:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_gameon.xml
He does indeed mention us as the only team in Connacht to try playing it the right way although I think we have become more defensive under new management. Galway would not be regarded as defensive, quiet the opposite, no?
Joe Brolly gets labelled as a ranter. Yet he often has a lot of serious truths in what he says. I have a GAA Go subscription and I won’t be renewing it next year. Not unless there are some rule changes from Jarlath Burns group that can guarantee a better standard of football. I’v watched games this year and it is just so predicatable what happens. You can predict the slowing down of frees, the players getting trapped in three man tackles, the all in pushing and showing matches that develop.
This naive viewpoint that “Tactics evolve”. We’re looking at the modern blanket now for five seasons and there are only more blanket defences each year.
U21 level is even worse. Mayo this year at U21 were devoid of anything other than blanket – run it; blanket – run it, blanket run it;. Repeat * N until the final whistle goes and hope you come out the better side of a low scoring game.
Great to see Tom back and I hope he can push on from here. Also great to see so many that travelled to Cork at the weekend having their contribution acknowledged by so many football followers here on this site. Good supporters matter, of course they do and they always will.
I think Mayo should catch Donegal on the hop on Sunday, take a trip to Foxford the morning of the game and return with the biggeshht woollen Foxford blanket you e’er did see and bring it back to Castlebar.
If Donegal adapt the all behind the ball tactic, are Mayo capable of breaking down that system ? That’s the big question for Sunday….
Fully deserved ,,,great performance ,