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On Sunday at 2pm the Mayo ladies’ senior team will take on a familiar enemy in familiar setting, but it will be at a level that Mayo ladies’ football has not been used to for quite a long time.

Galway Ladies suffered a blow to their championship ambitions when losing their Connacht crown to Mayo on Saturday.

It’s win or bust for the Mayo minors on Sunday at high noon when the ball is thrown in on Sunday for their Connacht Championship semi-final against Roscommon. Tony Duffy is in his second year in charge of the side and despite being the current Connacht Champions there are no guarantees at this grade. A win would put Mayo into the Connacht final against either Sligo or Galway, who square up tomorrow evening in their semi-final in the shadow of Benbulben in Sligo; a win will guarantee them a place in the All Ireland quarter finals at the least. The team on Sunday will be captained by Breaffy’s Conor O’Shea on a big day for his family with his brothers, Aidan and Seamus, lining out in midfield for the senior team later that day against Galway. Duffy will be able to call upon four of the squad from last years Connacht title win with O’Shea being joined by fellow alumni from 2010 Conor Horan, Ryan Quirke, and James Shaughnessy to backbone the side. However such is the nature of underage competitions, getting a new side to gel each year is not an exact science and on Sunday Duffy and his management team will be hoping that all the hard work through the Connacht league in the spring will come to fruition and set the team up for another crack at a Connacht title.

A weekend that promised a lot delivered very little for Mayo football followers, apart from more questions. On Saturday a very fancied u21 team went into battle against Roscommon in McHale Park in the preliminary round of the Connacht championship and were dumped out of the competition at the first hurdle. On paper Mayo had a team full of players who would have had designs on at least a Connacht title if not more. But when it came to the crunch, too many players did not show up and they were just passengers on they day when Roscommon won out by 0-11 to 0-9 in Castlebar.

It may not be that long in the grand scheme of things and with everything else that is going on around the country, it may seem like a very trivial matter. But to those, who follow the fortunes of the Mayo senior team tomorrow night couldn’t have come quick enough. A new year, a new start and a new manager, a new season and a chance to start putting the memory of Pearse Park in Longford last June, well into the past.

Those souls who made the trip to Ballyhaunis last Sunday were left sorely disappointed when the man in black, TJ Keaveney from Sligo, decided that there would be no action on display because of a frozen pitch. The game which was originally down for Ballinamore in Leitrim was changed only the day before because of a similar problem. But the game being called off only 20 minutes before throw-in time caused a major inconvenience not only for the teams — Mayo had been going through their warm up on the second pitch in Ballyhaunis when it was called off — but to the supporters who had paid in to the ground. Mayo will now get their season underway on Saturday night in McHale Park when they host GMIT under lights in what will be a test run for the county ground ahead of their National League division one opener with Down on February 5 in the same venue. No Mayo starting team has been announced for the game at the time of going to print, but it would be expected to be along the same lines as the one picked for the Leitrim game. However there was one planned change before the game was called off last Sunday, with Castlebar Mitchels’ defender Richie Feeney out of the side after he picked up a foot injury the day before the game. GMIT will have Mayo representation with former Mayo midfielder Pat Fallon in charge of the team and a number of players from Mayo clubs battling for inclusion in his side. Mayo’s game against Leitrim has been refixed by the Connacht Council for January 30 in the original venue in Ballinanmore. The re-fixed game will give Mayo manager James Horan one last chance to run the rule over his side before the opening of their National League opener with Down the next Saturday.