Tomorrow night's Mayo GAA U21A final might be taking place in the fading hours of November, but it promises to be one of the most entertaining games of the year when defending champions, Claremorris, take on Westport for the second year in a row in the final of this competition.
Both sides have an array of talent from their final meeting last year, which was won by Claremorris - still under age this year - and it promises to be another classic meeting between the sides.
In their semi-final last weekend, Claremorris needed extra time to get over a battling Castlebar Mitchels side, Kevin Beirne's men trailed early on but got back into the contest thanks to a goal from the penalty spot, through Stephen Gill who converted after Conor Diskin had been fouled. They trailed 0-7 to 1-2 at the interval but managed to keep their opponents to just three points in the second half, while adding on eight of their own to send the game to extra-time and sub Finian Brady's goal in extra time proved critical to their 2-12 to 0-11 win.
There were big performances from the likes of Stephen McGreal, Gill, Conor Diskin and Brian Quinn for Kevin Beirne's men in the win and they will need to put in similarly big showings tomorrow night against an exciting Westport side.
The Covies had things much easier in their semi-final, seeing off Knockmore by 19 points on a score of 5-17 to 1-10 in their semi-final win, which put them into their third u21 final on the bounce. Alan Kennedy hit eight points in that win, with other big-scoring returns coming from the likes of Kieran Kilkelly who bagged 2-1, Stephen Loftus hitting 1-3, Colm Moran 1-2 and Eoghan McLaughlin getting their first goal of the five they hit that day.
Martin Calvey's side will be keen to get revenge for last year's defeat in the final, a classic should be on the cards between these two town sides who will be hoping their success at this grade will spur them on to greater things at adult level in the coming years.
