Search Results for 'the Hogan Stand'

As we expected Cork are our opponents for Sunday’s All-Ireland Quarter final which promises to be a great day out for Mayo Fans albeit a long day. The minors take centre stage at 12 noon followed by the seniors at 4pm. I have heard rumblings as to why the Mayo senior game couldn’t be on at 2pm, so Mayo fans wouldn’t have to spend the best part of six hours in Croke Parke. It would have been the correct course of action, imagine someone from Belmullet going to support the minors, leaving at 7am on Sunday morning and probably not getting home until the early hours. I don’t envy them, however beggars can’t be choosers and we should be delighted the minors are getting at least one game at headquarters. Last year the minor quarter final against Westmeath was played on bank holiday Monday in Tullamore, most Mayo fans won’t be present for the start of the minor game anyway as happened in Castlebar for the Connacht Final. I personally can’t wait and will watch every second of every game.

Mayo limped out of the national league in spectacular fashion last Sunday in Croke Park against a much livelier and hungrier Derry team. What has everyone worried is Mayo’s failure and inability to make a numerical advantage count for the second time in three weeks.

Mayo left Croke Park on Sunday evening with far more questions than answers, as a 14 man Derry team ran at them and right through them, into the National Football League final in a fortnight's time. For the second time in the space of a few weeks, Mayo had a man advantage and a decent lead, but they were unable to see the game out and came up short in Croke Park. When Fergal Doherty was shown a second yellow card and ordered off the field for a late challenge on Aidan O'Shea in the build up to Mayo's goal 24 minutes in, it should have been the staging post for Mayo's march to victory. But, they never got moving as freely as expected and Derry ran out deserving winners.

The Portumna hurlers collected the Tommy Moore Cup on the steps of the Hogan Stand for a stunning fourth time in nine years on Monday after seeing off Mount Leinster Rangers by 0-19 to 0-11.

When 42 minutes into the contest Danny Kirby reacted quickest to a Neil Douglas shot coming back off the post and he drove the ball past Michael Savage from close range, Castlebar Mitchels believed it was going to be their day in Croke Park. Kirby's goal put his side into a 1-11 to 2-7 lead and looked to have Vincent's rattled. But less than a minute later, the Dublin side won a free out on the Cusack Stand side of the field. Tomas Quinn was making his way over to have a crack at the posts, but his team-mate Tiernan Diamond decided to launch a quick one into the the Mitchels penalty area the ball bounced and evaded the grasp of Ciarán Dorney, but unfortunately for Castlebar, Diarmuid Connolly was following in behind and was able to palm the ball past the reach of Ciaran Naughton in the Mitchels goal, to put Vincent's back in front and take the wind out of the Mitchels sails. It wasn't the knock-out punch, but it was the one that left Castlebar unsteady on their feet and needing the end of the round to come quickly for them to recover, but it never came and the Marino team and Connolly in particular kept piling on the blows over the next ten minutes. Over that period Connolly kicked another 1-3, which went unanswered by the Mitchels. The Dublin stars second goal saw him run through the heart of the Mitchels defence, get dispossessed yet he was still able to flick the ball back up into his hands with his right boot and in a continuous movement drop the ball to his left boot and fire it past Ciaran Naughton. That was the knock out blow and it was plain sailing for Vincent's from then on to the final whistle even if Danny Kirby did manage to get a second goal for Castlebar just before the end to close the gap a bit.

Oh to have a crystal ball to see what fortunes lie ahead for Mayo football in 2014. One thing for sure, one Mayo club — Kiltane have a superb chance to claim one of the early pieces of silverware when they take on Truagh of Monaghan in the All-Ireland intermediate final in Croke Park on February 9, a feat my own club Charlestown should have accomplished last season but for some calamitous decisions when they were coasting against eventual winners Cookstown of Tyrone in the All- Ireland semi final. Kiltane were simply brilliant last Sunday. If you were to tell me before the game that star attacker Mikey Sweeney and Tommy “Goals” Conroy were not going to score against Clyda Rovers, I would have re-mortgaged the house on Clyda.

The future's bright, the future's Mayo. Despite what happened in the senior final afterwards, the achievements of this current crop of Mayo minors should warm the hearts of the county over the winter months. Enda Gilvarry's team, have been a joy to watch this summer, playing with free-flowing abandon and ruthless streak. In the six minutes either side of half time, they kicked 2-4 to set up Mayo's first win the All Ireland minor championship since 1985. There were young heroes all over the field, with David Kenny, Eddie Doran, Michael Hall and Stephen Coen all leading from the back. While you couldn't ask for much more from the full-forward line, who contributed 2-8 between them, with Tommy Conroy and Darragh Doherty grabbing 1-2 each, with Liam Irwin kicking four points from frees.

The future's bright, the future's Mayo. Despite what happened in the senior final afterwards, the achievements of this current crop of Mayo minors should warm the hearts of the county over the winter months. Enda Gilvarry's team, have been a joy to watch this summer, playing with free-flowing abandon and ruthless streak. In the six minutes either side of half time, they kicked 2-4 to set up Mayo's first win the All Ireland minor championship since 1985. There were young heroes all over the field, with David Kenny, Eddie Doran, Michael Hall and Stephen Coen all leading from the back. While you couldn't ask for much more from the full-forward line, who contributed 2-8 between them, with Tommy Conroy and Darragh Doherty grabbing 1-2 each, with Liam Irwin kicking four points from frees.

Sunday was a special day for anyone who has been involved with camogie in this county down through the years.

Although he was powerless to do anything to help his team-mates, from his place; injured and on the bench in the Hogan Stand as Mayo took on more water early on than they could bail out over the seventy minutes of last years All Ireland final, Andy Moran still has taken plenty from that most recent sunken Mayo adventure into late September football. Shipping two goals inside the opening ten minutes was never going to be an easy task to navigate, but the final hour of that game and one moment in particular has steered Mayo's ship this year, back to within one game again to the having a crack at the final leg of an epic journey according to the Mayo captain. “I think, you can't underestimated it (Mayo's performance in the final hour). The guts and the courage the lads showed right from where I'd pick out a pivotal moment was,when David Clarke saved from Colm McFadden for what would have been their third goal, I think he nearly broke his own leg and Colm's leg, he was going to save that ball and it drove us on to be honest with you. To me that is the major point of that game and yes we lost the All Ireland, it was another one we lost, but we lost it fighting and that was a key thing.”