It wasn’t convincing and James Horan wasn’t pleased after it but Mayo picked up their second win in a row last weekend in Mullingar to get a bit of momentum build behind the team. This Sunday in Elvery’s MacHale Park a far sterner test will be given to Mayo when an unbeaten Cork team arrive in Castlebar under new manager Brian Cuthbert. The Rebels boss whose side have so far beaten Dublin, Kildare, Derry and Westmeath in the league has made eight changes to the team that beat the Oak Leaf county last Sunday, with Eoghan Cadogan, Aidan Walsh, Donncha O’Connor and Colm O’Neill just some of the star names that Cuthbert has drafted in for the game.
James Horan will be hoping that his defence is a lot tighter this weekend after conceding 3-9 to the perceived minnows of the division, with the Cork attack posing a far more potent threat that that of the midlanders. The concession of 8-56 in four games is something that has alarmed Horan who admitted that “we’re just way to open and too naive” after the Westmeath game
While Andy Moran had to sit out last weekends game and wasn’t fit enough to take his place on the bench which was taken by a returning Tom Parsons, the return to action of Cillian O’Connor was a welcome boost for the Mayo manager. O’Connor, Seamus O’Shea and David Drake gave Mayo a major boost from the bench last weekend.
After this Sunday’s game Mayo face into a trip to Croke Park against Dublin and then welcome Derry at the start of April and win on Sunday would do a lot to ease the relegation nerves before those two games.
