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This weekend will be a big weekend of action for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. The near neighbours have been focusing their attention on provincial honours since winning the Mayo intermediate and senior championships respectively.

Tonight, if things went to plan for Castlebar Mitchels, would have been a chance to mark themselves out as the premier side in the county across all the big grades this year. But double defeat last Sunday in the county senior and minor finals has left just the U21A title up for grabs for the Mitchels men. The county town side will not want to let this one slip through their grasp and will go into the game as favourites after overcoming a fancied Breaffy side at the last four stage of the competition. Both sides have bounced back from opening day defeats, with Castlebar losing to Aghamore who were beaten by their opponents on Friday night, Hollymount-Carramore at the semi-final stage and the south Mayo men going down to Westport in their first game back in the summer.

Castlebar is a long way from the Friday Night Lights of Texas High School football which was the background to HG Bissinger’s seminal 1990 book of the same name. But Castlebar will play host to Mayo’s own underage showdowns under the glare of the floodlights this evening with both semi-finals in the Mayo u21A championship down for decision.

Saturday afternoon promises to be a battle in the west that is not to be missed. Ballintubber, who are going for three in a row, will face off against local rivals Castlebar Mitchels who are still smarting from last year’s final defeat. The two west Mayo clubs breezed through the competition up to the semi-final stage where both Claremorris and St Gerald’s put it up to them, setting up tomorrow’s mouth watering encounter.

If it wasn’t a difficult enough task for Tony Duffy taking over as Mayo minor manager after two successive appearances in the All Ireland final at this grade for the county, on Saturday evening it is win or bust for the year before June is even out. Duffy was the man to come out on top of a number of candidates picked by the county board to lead the Mayo minor side this year, following Ray Dempsey and his backroom team’s elevation to the u21 side. So far so good for Duffy and his backroom team of Vinnie Walsh, Liam Lavelle, and Michael Ruane, the Connacht minor league saw Mayo pick up four wins from five, the only defeat coming at the hands of this weekend’s opponents Roscommon on the opening day of the competition at the tail end of March in Ballyhaunis.