Search Results for 'Adrian Marren'

By the time Niall Murphy had put Sligo's first score on the board, just before the 10 minute mark, Mayo had their 46th Connacht title well under wraps, having scored 2-4 of their own. Mayo's frantic work rate and total domination of Sligo's own kick-out was the foundation to that start. They never gave Sligo an inch to breathe in the early exchanges and forced Aidan Devaney into a risky kick-out strategy that was ultimately fatal for the game. We take a look at where those scores came from below.

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.

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."

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.

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.

An acquaintance of mine from Galway and his wife took a few nights away in lovely Westport last February to celebrate Valentine’s. 

A fellow attendee was telling me last Saturday afternoon, at a wedding in the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway, that Niall Carew's Sligo team were available at 7/1 in some bookies. He looked me in the eye and asked, "What do you think, Silke? Are they worth a punt?" I told him that they were astonishing odds, however, that on all known recent form, including two successive promotions, Roscommon would be expected to win. However he should check out the handicap, as I didn't think there would be that much between them.

A fellow attendee, (a man clearly) was telling me last Saturday afternoon at a wedding in the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway that Niall Carew’s Sligo team were available at 7/1 in some bookies. 

World Cup fever is well and truly upon us with games coming thick and fast and most of us struggling to keep the lids open for the late starts every night. Mayo football and the World Cup is something I relate to from my memories as a Mayo footballer. I made my championship debut for Mayo all the way back in 1994, the World Cup was on in the USA the same year. It is hard to believe 20 years could go by so fast. Mayo football was taking a bit of a bashing then on the back of Mayo’s humiliating defeat to Cork in the All-Ireland semi final by all of 20 points in 1993. As a new kid on the block I did not care about the World Cup, and I was oblivious to the thrashing I am sure Mayo football was taking from the entire country, because I had achieved a goal I set myself as a 16-year-old who failed to make a Mayo u16 team for the Ted Webb Cup. When I arrived home from Mayo u16 training in 1990 to tell my parents I had been dropped from the panel because I simply was not good enough I swore to them that day I would play for the Mayo senior team before I was 20.

By Ray Silke