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Mayo will make the long trip north this weekend to take on the Inishowen league in their opening game in this season’s Oscar Traynor Trophy. For the second year in a row Castlebar Celtic manager Declan Kilkelly will be taking charge of the side and after narrowly missing out on qualifiying from the group stages last year Kilkelly will be hoping to at least improve on that this season. This year’s competition sees Mayo in a three team group with this weekend’s opponents the Inishowen League and the Galway League and with only one team to qualify for the next round of the competition.

Inishowen League 1

It's a simple task for Mayo on Sunday: win the game and book their place in the last eight of this season's Oscar Traynor Cup; while for Galway all they need is a point to reach their the last eight.

It was a bad weekend for the two Mayo sides who were in action in the fifth round of the FAI Junior Cup last week. Both Castlebar Celtic and Manulla took their leave from the competition. Celtic will be the ones feeling hard done by as some strange refereeing decisions cost them their place in the sixth round of the competition. Celtic managed to get the ball in the back of the Rathkeale net three times but two of them were struck off the record. The Castlebar men headed to Limerick with a depleted squad with both Andy Neary and Declan Flynn ruled out through injury. But they thought they had hit the front early on when Peter Dravins fired the ball to the back of the net after a flick on by Sean McHale only for the linesman’s flag to go up. However, 31 minutes in they were rewarded when Sean McHale, was able to direct the ball to the back of the net following a scramble in the box from a Ger O’Boyle corner kick.

“It’s not ideal but that’s the nature of junior soccer,” said Mayo manager Declan Kilkelly of his side’s preparation for tomorrow’s quarter final of the Oscar Traynor Cup. Mayo only got back to group training this week after their win over the Galway League in the last round of the group stages of the competition in December, due to the Christmas break and FAI Junior Cup action. Tomorrow they will make the trip to Dublin to take on the United Churches League in the quarter final of the premier tournament for county sides in junior soccer looking to book a place in the final four of the competition.

This Sunday afternoon sees the Mayo League take to the field in the semi final of the Oscar Traynor Cup in the lion’s den of the AUL complex in Clonshaugh, Dublin. Their opposition, the much fancied Athletic Union League, are the favourites to lift the cup this year. Mayo manager Declan Kilkelly was confident going in to the game when he spoke to the Mayo Advertiser earlier this week. “We have a great squad here and if we play to the maximum of our potential, we have a great chance of making the final.” The Mayo side had a warm up game last week with a charity match against Iorras Aontaithe in Carne, which Mayo won 3-2, which Kilkelly believed to be a “great bonding session for the lads and preparation for this weekends challenge.”

EA Sports League of Ireland Cup

Castlebar Celtic 2

Castlebar Celtic 2

While Christms is only around the corner the never-ending road that is Mayo soccer continues apace this weekend. Last weekend saw the Oscar Traynor side slip into the knock-out stages of the competition, this weekend the attention turns to the FAI Junior Cup. Both Castlebar Celtic and Manulla will be looking to make it into round six of the competition while Westport United and Mulranny United will battle it out to escape into the national stages of the competition.