Search Results for 'James Cafferty'

Roscommon 0-11

With the senior side bowing out of the championship in Croke Park last weekend, Ray Dempsey’s minor side will be looking to build on their Connacht championship win over Roscommon when they take on Monaghan on Saturday in Longford in the All Ireland quarter-final. Dempsey was able to mastermind Mayo’s first Connacht minor title in seven years thanks to a narrow win over a battling Roscommon side in Castlebar back in July and this Sunday’s game against the runners up in the Ulster Championship could send Mayo back to Croke Park. While they rode their luck at times in the Connacht final especially in the first half when Roscommon kicked themselves out of the game with some poor shooting, Mayo never let their opponents superiority on the field during the opening half get to them and kept plugging away before they took off on in the second half. Dempsey knows it’s going to be a big ask on Saturday and there is a lot of pressure on his side. “It’s nice to be here but as each game goes by the pressure builds up on you and your team. But this is where we want to be and that’s what comes with it.”

I recall a few short months ago writing in this paper about the poor fare we were witnessing in the majority of games at the start to this year’s championship. I had witnessed some fairly ordinary fare in every province and the general perception was that football was at a very low ebb. It was hard to argue at the time and I kept my fingers crossed that things just might improve as the season progressed. Wexford created their own fairy tale and did produce some magic along the way as they shocked us all by making it all the way to the All Ireland semi final. But the magic for me in this year’s football championship came in the last two weekends. The All Ireland final displays from the minor and senior final were magical. The quality of play and the excitement generated in the minor final was terrific.

The famous phrase ‘There’s No Show Like a Joe Show’ is expected to ring out across the west next month when the most acclaimed musical event of the last year, the award-winning Joe Dolan - The Reunion Show, rolls into the Royal Theatre, Castlebar. Romance will most certainly be in the air for Joe’s many fans in the west as the magical state-of-the-art production will be staged at the new entertainment mecca on Valentine’s Night, February 14, as part of a weekend-long musical celebration which also features country and western megastar, Jimmy Buckley.

The famous phrase ‘There’s No Show Like a Joe Show’ is expected to ring out across the west next month when the most acclaimed musical event of the last year, the award-winning Joe Dolan - The Reunion Show, rolls into the Royal Theatre and Event Centre in Castlebar.

Once again Mayo fell at the final hurdle, but unlike other instances when the Mayo faithful have left All Ireland finals scratching their collective heads as to what went wrong, this time there could be no question marks about the performance, attitude and dedication of the players and the management. Everything that could possibly be given in quest for the Tom Markham Cup was given in Pearse Park last Saturday. It took 140 minutes of football for Tyrone to shake Mayo off, 140 minutes where every player in green and red gave everything he possibly could.

I received a text immediately after the final whistle that simply asked ‘What happened Mayo?’ It was from a friend of mine who was convinced that Mayo would beat Meath last Sunday. It was not the first time I was asked that same question down through the years, but this time I wondered at its appropriateness. We may just have to accept the hurtful reality that we just were not good enough on the day. We could apportion blame on a sub-standard performance from the referee and his officials, but that would not in any way explain why we did not finish off an average Meath team, particularly when leading by four points midway through the second half. The reality is we just did not play well enough to win the match.