The Mayo senior ladies will make the long trip north to Convoy to take on Donegal in round two of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association National League on Sunday afternoon.
Both sides head into the game on the back of winning starts in round one. While Mayo will have been happy to have seen off Tipperary at home last weekend, their opponents' win over defending All Ireland and National Football League champions Dublin, was by far and away the stand-out result of round one of the competition.
Donegal's four point win over Dublin in Croke Park was back-boned by their captain, Karen Guthrie, who kicked 1-4 from play and six points from Geraldine McLaughlin, with five of them coming from frees. Donegal led 1-5 to 0-5 at the break with Guthrie's goal coming five minutes in.
Mayo's first half showing against Tipperary set them up for the win, as Peter Leahy's side put together a storming first 30 minutes to go in leading 2-9 to 0-4 at the break. They bagged two goals inside the opening six minutes with Grace Kelly and Rachel Kearns both hitting the back of the net. Kearns put in an impressive shift in the full forward line, bagging 1-6 over the hour, while Kelly finished up with 1-1 to her name and Sinead Cafferkey contributed two points to the scoreboard.
Mayo were really tested by last year's division two champions in the second half, who outscored them 0-7 to 0-2 in the final half hour, with the vital points for Mayo coming from Kearns and sub, Roisin Durkin, to keep the Munster ladies at bay down the home stretch.
After this round Mayo will have a weekend off before they take on Dublin in round three in Croke Park as the undercard of the meeting of the two counties mens' teams on Saturday, February 10.
