Search Results for 'Alan Dillon'

All-Ireland final hype is about to enter fever pitch. Nothing beats preparing for a final, whether your a player, supporter, county board or club official. It gives everyone a pep in their step. The players and officials have the trivial matters out of the way and will have their match day suits ready for the off and press commitments done and dusted. For them now it's all about focused minds and mentally preparing themselves for the biggest day of their footballing lives.

Time comes up against every man at some stage, for Alan Dillon who turns 34 this September it is catching up on his inter-county career a lot quicker than he would like. The Ballintubber play-maker had been a mainstay of Mayo sides going back to his championship debut as a 19-year-old back in 2003 against Sligo. But last year he found himself kicking his heels on the bench and not getting much game time at all, something that he was not used to, but he always had faith in his ability to do a job for the team. "I suppose last year was disappointing. I was competing in training, I don't want to dwell too long on it, it was one of those years that you more or less write off. But I always had belief in what I was doing. I was performing and putting pressure on the As in training," he told the Mayo Advertiser this week.

At the end of the day, the result is all that matters. It wasn’t the prettiest of games in Croke Park, but it was intense, intriguing and full of industry and some moments of pure inspiration. Mayo are in the All Ireland semi-final in two weeks time and that’s exactly where they want to be. They dug in and put in the hard yards on the field in Croke Park and thanks to Lee Keegan’s point five minutes from the end, that seemed to take at least five minutes before it dropped over Niall Morgan’s bar they won the day and moved step closer to their ultimate goal.

Last Saturday saw Mayo move their historical record in the All Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifers into the black with their two point win over Fermanagh. This coming Saturday, they will be looking to move that win/loss record a little bit further into the black when they welcome Kildare to MacHale Park.

For the first time since the year before Mayo claimed their first All Ireland senior title, Mayo will take on Kildare in a senior championship match. That meeting, in the All Ireland semifinal back in 1935, saw the Leinster men win 2-6 to 0-7; tomorrow evening the Mayo faithful will be hoping for a different result when the sides clash in MacHale Park.

Mayo qualified for a round three qualifier clash with Kildare after coming from six points down at half time against a very well organised and fired up Fermanagh in Castlebar. It was a nervy affair which had us on the edge of our seats throughout. The game had incidents aplenty, none more so than the awarding of a controversial penalty to Mayo when the game was in the melting pot, near the end of the game. The coverage this incident has received in the media is similar to the coverage given to the passing of David Bowie or Prince, it went viral and was scrutinised in every forum, totally uncalled for in my opinion.

Was it a penalty? Probably not looking at the replays, but Aidan O’Shea has been fouled and dragged down enough times in his inter-county career and not gotten a free he deserved, some day a break was going to have to go his way.

Meetings between Mayo and Fermanagh have not been the most regular of clashes down through the years, you have to go back nine years for the last time the sides met in serious competition, and four years further for their last meeting in the qualifiers. The last time that Mayo tussled with Fermanagh in competitive action was way back in March 2007, when they squared off in the league in March of that year in Clones. Mayo ran out 0-12 to 0-7 winners that day, of the team that started for Mayo nine years ago, only three of them survive in the panel now, with Keith Higgins the only one who started in Clones on the starting 15 for Mayo's last game against Galway. Higgins lined out at corner back in that game, while both Alan Dillon and Andy Moran were in the full-foward line for a John O'Mahony managed team that was guided home to victory due in no small part to a six point return from Conor Mortimer over the hour.

Garry’ win southern shootout

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