Search Results for 'Barry Moran'

Mayo and Westmeath come face to face this Sunday in Fr O’Hara Park Charlestown in a game that both sides badly need to get something out of. Westmeath are point-less after their two disappointing defeats to Galway and Derry and a hat-trick of losses would leave them staring down the barrel of relegation to division two. A massive concern, too, for them is that they are minus 19 in the division scoring charts which indicates some major problems at the back for a side that prided themselves on being tight as a drum last season.

After a hiatus of a couple of weeks it is back to the cut and thrust of the National Football League for John O’Mahony and his charges this Sunday. Westmeath are making the trip to Charlestown for the all ticket encounter which has been limited to a capacity of 3,000 as Mayo continue to play their games away from McHale Park as redevelopment works continue apace in the Castlebar ground.

“It’s off the mark, it wasn’t spectacular, it’s a win at the end of a difficult week with all the injuries and uncertainty.” John O’Mahony cut a happy figure outside the Mayo dressing room on Sunday after he watched his side see off Westmeath with ease. The two points on the board was the most important thing on an afternoon where conditions dictated that the game would never move above the mediocre in quality for long periods. Mayo were struck with a number of injuries going into the game and O’Mahony is confident most will be back in the reckoning by the time Mayo make the trip to Kerry this weekend. “I’d hope they would, Ger Cafferkey it’s not a serious injury but we didn’t want to take any chances, Pat Harte would have been OK to go in there, but we decided to hold him so we could get another week’s training into him. Barry Moran’s injury was a bad hamstring pull and it could be a long one. Billy Joe Padden, maybe he’ll be back, it was a very bad dead leg he got in the challenge match last week, at least we have another week to buy with them and see. Alan Dillon will be fine, he could have almost started but the extra week will do him good.”

While Mayo were busy dispensing with the paltry challenge put up by Westmeath last Sunday, the flashbulbs were frantically popping in Bellaghy as the prodigal son of Kerry football, Tadhg Kennelly, made his return to the Gaelic fields of Ireland after his nine year excursion on the fields of Australian rules. Mayo will make the 300 mile round trip from home base in McHale Park to Tralee to take on a side which has seen off Donegal, Tyrone, and Derry in their last three games, and are brimful of confidence as they try to impress Jack O’Connor who has taken over the reins of the side for the second time this year.

Fixture pile ups usually occur for club sides in Mayo in late summer, if the senior inter-county team are involved in championship action at the business end of the season. But last weekend, as it will again this weekend, it came to a log jam for both the senior inter-county side and u21 side. Normally before inter-county games the senior team management announce their team on a Thursday evening, bar any niggling injuries that may be hanging around. But last week, John O’Mahony informed the press and public through county PRO Kevin O’Toole that there would be no side named until Sunday morning due to the involvement of the u21s in Connacht Championship action.

McHale Park will get its first airing this season on Sunday when the All Ireland champions Tyrone come to town for the final round of the Allianz National Football League. Mayo will be looking to pick up where they left off against Galway in Tuam Stadium a fortnight ago, where a stunning second half performance saw John O’Mahony’s side overturn a six point half time deficit to squeeze past Galway by a single point and secure a one point win. The win leaves O’Mahony’s side in fourth place in the division one table on six points, equal on points with Mickey Harte’s side. A draw on Sunday would ensure both sides’ status in division one for next season, but a defeat coupled with a high scoring win by Dublin over an already relegated Westmeath and a win by Donegal over Derry could drag either side back into the bottom two of a very tight division one table.

We are officially up and running now, with the championship opening in 16 days on another continent all that we were waiting for was the 30 names who would make up the championship panel for 2009. When the list was announced on Sunday evening there were no major surprises as John O’Mahony and his backroom team set out their stall for the summer. As was widely expected James Nallen, Keith Higgins, David Heany, and Trevor Howley were all included in the panel despite none of them taking part in the league campaign. In total 22 of those picked for last year’s squad at the same stage of the year were selected again this year, with the likes of Colm Boyle, James Gill, and Michael Mullins all not making the cut this time around. While the veterans Nallen and Heany were included Aidan Higgins, whom many thought might have got the nod, was not selected despite lining out in a recent challenge match against Offaly in Castlebar.

It all starts here on Sunday at 3pm local time (8pm at home), the All Ireland senior football championship in its celebratory 125th year gets under way with the footballers of Mayo taking to the field in Gaelic Park, roughly 3,047 miles from home in McHale Park, Castlebar.

Charlestown v Castlebar

Castlebar 1-15