The ice and snow claimed many victims since before Christmas and with some more severe weather in the offing over the next few days, Mayo League manager Brendan Kenny is hoping that it will not claim his side’s Oscar Traynor Cup clash with the Roscommon and District League for a second time. “Hopefully it will go ahead this weekend, it’s been a long time coming now,” he said. “The weather is the weather and there’s nothing much you can do about it. But on the positive side it has given the lads a break that they would have needed. You have to have a break from the game for a while or lads will get burnt out or lose their appetitive for the game. I suppose you could also say that it has shown well for the Mayo League, with the amount of postponements, their decision to change to summer soccer a few years ago.”
Kenny was able to get his squad together for a session on Tuesday night and will have them together tonight (Friday, January 7 ) ahead of Sunday’s showdown in Milebush at 2pm. The enforced lay off has also been good news on the injury front allowing players extra time to recover or become available again from other commitments according to Kenny. “Well I’m hopeful that Gary Goggins will be back on Sunday, he was going to be away for the game when it was originally fixed. I’m also hoping that the few injuries we have will have cleared up a bit more since before Christmas, Tom O’Connor and John Mountney are two players in particular that we are hoping will have cleared up their injuries ahead of the game. We’ll be assessing those two lads and a few other minor knocks and bruises we have tonight, and we’ll go from there.”
Asked if he had a preferred 11 in mind for the game, Kenny said that he did. “I have an 11 in mind all right, but there is no point in letting that out until we see how everyone is. We’ll hopefully have a good session on Friday night and then be ready to roll on Sunday for what will be a good game of football.” Mayo’s opponents on Sunday have already been in action in the Oscar Traynor Cup this year, going down 3-1 to the Sligo/Leitrim league so it is do or die for them at this stage of the competition. Mayo will travel to McSharry Park in Sligo on January 23 to take on Sligo/Leitrim in the last group game of the competition.
New year’s action continues
There will be two Mayo sides in action in the Connacht Cup third round this Sunday, with Swinford making the trip to Ballygawley Celtic in Sligo at 2pm. Kilmore will also be on the road to Sligo where they will take on Cliffony Celtic. Next weekend has been pencilled in for the fourth round of the FAI Junior Cup, with the following weekend being Mayo’s game against the Sligo/Leitrim league on January 23.
