The men who made it five from five

Mon, Jul 20, 2015

Mayo used 21 players yesterday on the field in their historic win over Sligo as they picked up their fifth Connacht title on the bounce, we run our eye over the performance of all those 21 players.

Mayo hammer home their dominance in Connacht

Sun, Jul 19, 2015

Whatever lingering doubts there were at the start of the year of Mayo’s ability to retain their place at the top of the tree in Connacht, were put to bed with barely six minutes of this Connacht final elapsed on Padraig O’Sullivan’s stopwatch. At the end of the day Mayo had claimed their fifth Connacht tile on the bounce and dished out the kind of hammering to Sligo that will be of no use to either side as they move on to their respective next stages of the championship.

O’Shea happy with collectors item goal

Sun, Jul 19, 2015

The O’Shea house will be bursting with more medals and awards this week after Aidan and Seamus O’Shea picked up another Connacht medal each and Aidan got his hands on the man-of-the match award. Eldest brother Seamus, had to bow out of the action early doors on Sunday after he picked up an injury, but he reckons it’s not too serious. “I gave my groin a bit of a pull after 20 minutes, we’ll see what the medical team say, hopefully it won’t be to bad. I was in a tackle, what ever way I twisted or turned I gave it a bit of a pull, hopefully it will be all right.”

Holding the line in the drive for five

Sun, Jul 19, 2015

This season has seen David Clarke regain the starting spot between the posts for Mayo and the Ballina Stephenites man put in another good showing on Sunday in Hyde Park, pulling off two great saves during the 70 minutes. Asked after the game about how he felt following Mayo’s fifth Connacht title in a row he said, “It’s great, as a group of players and it’s the standard we set ourselves and we’re after hitting another target we set at the start of the year.”

All systems go for Sunday

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

Mayo have made two changes for Sunday's Connacht final clash with Sligo from the team that lined out against Galway in Pearse Stadium in their semi-final win in Salthill five weeks ago. Back into the starting line up comes Ger Cafferkey and Donal Vaughan, with the Ballinrobe man wearing the number three shirt and Cafferkey the number two jersey. Whether both men actually play in those positions on Sunday remains yet to be seen, with Cafferkey normally occupying the full back position. Out of the side have gone Belmullet's Chris Barrett and Westport's Kevin Keane, Keane missing out after he picked up an injury in last Sunday's A v B game in Elverys MacHale Park.

The captain's call

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

Half a decade ago, Mayo were bounced out of the Connacht championship by Sligo in the shadow of Benbulbin, it was one of those bad days for Mayo football where nothing went right.

Greeting from the border line

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

It is not the Connacht final we expected to see but it certainly is one that has been widely anticipated after Sligo threw away the form book when comprehensively disposing of Roscommon in the semi final. It is slightly ironic that it is the 40th anniversary of Sligo’s famous win against Mayo in the final. The big question on everybody’s lips is will they be able to produce again against the current Connacht kingpins to prevent the green and red going for an unprecedented five in a row.

Back against the side where it all began for Boyle

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

The last time that Mayo lost in the Connacht championship was back in 2010, back then Davitts' flying wing-back Colm Boyle had fallen out of favour with the then Mayo management and it was another two years before he returned to the fold under James Horan. Boyle did not make it to that game as a supporter he said last week. "No I missed it, I was at a wedding the same day," but like many a summer wedding in Ireland he was one of a few missing in action from part of the celebrations, adding that he did see it on TV. "I missed the dinner over it."

Connelly wary of Sligo attacking threat

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

While Mayo head into Sunday's Connacht final as favourites, joint Mayo manager Noel Connelly is not taking anything for granted and he is very keenly aware that Sligo will pose a serious threat to his side's ambitions of claiming a 46th Connacht title. Sligo's performance against Roscommon and particularly that of their inside forwards impressed the Hollymount-Carramore clubman. "They were the underdogs, Roscommon were the hot favourites after winning the division two league final. Sligo had won three and lost three in division three, but they were the highest scoring county team in all the leagues, also they used very few players outside the 17 or 18, so they are a very settled team, a very young team, and they played with great belief and no fear, and led from the off. Nobody could say they weren't deserving winners," he said.

Mayo should complete historic five in a row on Sunday

Fri, Jul 17, 2015

An acquaintance of mine from Galway and his wife took a few nights away in lovely Westport last February to celebrate Valentine's Day. When he had a few jars taken one evening he went talking football with an older man in his sixties in a local tavern and proceeded to start slagging him about Mayo's defeats in All-Ireland finals since 1989.

To his complete mortification, the lifelong red and green supporter got quite upset. And possibly with a few pots on board too - shed a few tears of sorrow - and explained how he had been at all those harrowing defeats, and included for good measure, the two games against Kerry last season in the All-Ireland semi-final. It has been at All-Ireland level for Mayo, as Keith Duggan of The Irish Times titled his book A House of Pain.

Ladies come up just short after massive effort

Sun, Jul 12, 2015

The finest of margins separated these two sides in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon, after looking like they were on the verge of a trimming 12 minutes in when they trailed by 0-7 to 0-1, Mayo came within inches of knocking Galway of their throne as the Queens of Connacht with a heroic display that came up just short in the final few minutes, where Galway’s greater composure in front of the posts saw them edge this battle.

Mayo fit and ready to go ahead of Yeats challenge

Fri, Jul 10, 2015

Diarmuid O'Connor is the only potential doubt for Mayo ahead of their Connacht Senior Football Championship final against Sligo next weekend, but joint Mayo manager Noel Connelly expects the Ballintubber man to get over his fractured wrist in time for the game. Connelly said this week: "Diarmuid O'Connor has a slight hairline fracture on his wrist, he's a x-ray during the week, but all the indications are that he's fine and will be fit to play. But he hasn't been playing contact football with us since the Connacht semi-final, and he hasn't played for Ballintubber in either of the club championship games, but we're hoping to have him this weekend. If not, if the doctors say to be better not to chance him for the [training] game on Sunday we won't, but we're still hoping to have him for selection the next weekend."

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