Mayo will make the same long journey their footballing brothers made a few weeks ago to Newry tomorrow afternoon looking to pick up a second win in the league and set them up for the Christy Ring Cup in the not to distant future. Christy Phillips’ men currently sit in fourth place in the six team division, out of contention of making the league final which will be contested by Meath and London the two sides who have beaten Mayo in this campaign so far. They sit one point behind tomorrow’s opponents from Ulster, thanks to their draw with Roscommon on the first day of the league and win over Armagh a fortnight ago in McHale Park.
Last Sunday Mayo came up against a stronger and more experienced London side who saw them off 3-13 to 1-11 in McHale Park while Down saw off neighbours Armagh, by a score of 4-13 to 0-15 in their game.
While London will be taking part in the Liam McCarthy Cup this year, Down will be a side on a similar level of quality that Mayo could face again in the Christy Ring Cup this year. The Mourne men saw off Mayo 0-19 to 0-17 in last year’s Christy Ring competition in Castlebar and Mayo will be hoping for a better result this time around. Mayo will have to do it without two key men on Saturday with Keith Higgins out after picking up an injury playing with the footballers last Sunday against Donegal and full back Aiden Connolly who is unavailable for tomorrow’s game. Mayo should avoid any relegation trouble with both Armagh and Roscommon facing off against the top two sides and both needing to pick up wins to jump over or pull level with Mayo and drag them into a potential relegation play-off. Mayo’s next outing bar a relegation play-off will be their Christy Ring Cup opener away to Kildare on Saturday May 4.
