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Following on from Liam Mellows 1-11 to 0-12 win last weekend over Clarinbridge in their replayed county quarter-final - the fixtures have been made for the two semi-finals.

Mayo make the trip to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh today to take on the Orchard County in what is a must win game for JP Coen’s men. After winning three out of three in their opening games in the league this year, Mayo slipped into third place in the table and out of the placings for a spot in the league final and a crack at promotion to Division 2A for next year after their disappointing loss to Wicklow last weekend in Castlebar.

The Mayo senior hurlers have two chances to avoid the drop to Division 3A of the National Hurling League over the next three weeks. On Sunday in Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon they will face Donegal in the Division 2B relegation play-off, if they win that game they will secure their status for next season. If they lose that game, they will then enter a promotion-relegation play-off against the winners of Division 3A in a final fling clash over the weekend of Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. The final of Division 3A is down for decision on Easter Saturday, April 4 when Tyrone and Monaghan meet in the title decider.

The Galway hurlers were beaten by 2-18 to 0-20 on Sunday in Semple Stadium in round two of the NHL.

The Galway senior hurlers travel to Limerick on Sunday to take on the home side at the Gaelic Grounds (3.30pm) in the National Hurling league quarter-final.

The Mayo senior hurlers have their first league outing of the season with a home game to Fingal on Sunday at 2pm in Elverys MacHale Park against Fingal. This is the second season in charge for Limerick native Christy Phillips who is hoping to start the League campaign will continue on the success his team have had recently in the Kehoe Shield. Phillips and his backroom team of Leo Connor (Limerick) Austin Kenny (Tooreen) and Karen Lacey (Westport) have been fine-tuning their preparations for the League since the first week in January. The hurlers received a major boost over the past few days with the return of Tooreen’s Cathal Freeman to the panel. Mayo will be looking for strong performances from seasoned campaigners Donal O’Brien, Padraig O’Flynn, Derek McDonnell, Kenny Feeney and Brian Hunt. Relative newcomers to the panel David Kenny, Kieran Kiely and Fergal Boland will also be hoping to impress.

In these austere times, if GAA supporters (consumers) are going to pay their limited cash at the turnstiles to attend games, they expect to be entertained.

London 2-15

It was a very strange league campaign for Mayo in division 2B of the national hurling league. They were unbeaten against the top two teams in the division yet only managed to finish in fourth place in the table out of six teams. The league campaign was bookended by impressive wins over bottom of the table Roscommon and eventual table toppers Kildare at the very end of the league stages. Both those wins of course did feature the talents of Keith Higgins who, as has become the norm in recent years, is balancing life as an inter-county footballer for one of the top sides in the country, and as the captain and leader of an inter-county hurling team a nice bit down the food chain when it comes to the small ball game. In between those two wins, Mayo held a fancied Meath side to a draw in Castlebar, before being beaten on the road by Armagh and overseas by London.

Kilkenny boss Brian Cody likes to make statements of intent and by recalling many of his big guns and giving Galway a nine-point trimming last Sunday at Pearse Stadium, 2-20 to 1-14, he laid down a small marker for the year.