Things are as tight as they could in Division 3A of the National Hurling League heading into the final weekend of round robin games.
First things first for Mayo is they need to pick up a win from their trip to Darver against Louth to ensure they don't get relegated from the division. If they manage to pick up that win and Monaghan who Mayo gave a 27-point beating last weekend manage to pick up at least a point from their clash against Roscommon in Clontibret, then Mayo will be heading into the semi-finals of the competition.
The situation at the moment sees Monaghan leading the way with six points from their four games, Roscommon, Louth and Armagh all locked on four points and Mayo and Fermanagh propping up the table on three points each. If Mayo win they will move to five points in the standings and will be safe, no matter what happens in the Armagh and Fermanagh clash as they will leap-frog at least one of those sides.
But the most important thing for Mayo to worry about is taking care of their own business on Saturday afternoon and see where the chips fall in terms of the semi-finals after that. It has been a difficult league so far for the new Mayo management having only picked up a point from their opening round game against Roscommon before last weekend, after that they were narrowly beaten by Fermanagh and Armagh on the road.
Last weekend Mayo started to work their way back to their best with a devastating performance at home against the Farney county running in five goals in a dismantling of an up-to-then unbeaten side. Mayo, who welcomed back a number of their Tooreen contingent did the damage on the scoreboard in the first half, going in at the break leading 4-17 to 0-7 with the goals coming from Jason Coyne, Eoin Delaney, Sean Kenny and Adrian Philips. Mayo got their fifth goal of the day not long after the restart through Daniel Huane and were able to ease their way home to the victory. Cormac Phillips finished up the day with 11 points to his name and was Mayo's top scorer.
Mayo look to be returning to form at the right time and with the opening round of the Christy Ring Cup coming up in a months time against Meath on the road, they will be firmly focused on that date once the league is out of the way.
