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With time ticking down to next Sunday’s Connacht semi-final against Roscommon in McHale Park, James Horan and his managment team took the chance of last Monday’s challenge game with Cavan in James Stephens Park to run the rule over a number of fringe contenders for a place in next Sunday’s side. Kenneth O’Malley in goal with Kevin Keane, Shane McHale, and James Burke were all given chances to impress in the defence, while Jason Gibbons put in a good shift, especially in the second half while partnering Aidan O’Shea in midfield. In attack Richie Feeney stepped into the number 11 shirt vacated by Cillian O’Connor because of his shoulder injury, while Darren Coen started at corner forward with Andy Moran in the other. The Ballaghaderreen man got some good game time under his belt in his battle to get back to full match fitness as soon as possible.

Mayo 4-16

All eyes on Sunday will be on a new look Mayo front six as the Connacht Championship throws in for another exciting instalment. Injuries have forced the hand of James Horan into lining out without what most people would say are four of his chosen starting forwards. While it’s good news that Alan Dillon and Andy Moran have made sufficient progress to take their places on the bench for Sunday, how match fit they are and what kind of impact they will be able to have after prolonged lay-offs is yet to be seen. The loss of Jason Doherty in recent times has added even more to Mayo’s problems up front along with loss of Michael Conroy a few weeks ago for a good portion of the early summer at least. Stepping into fill the gaps on Sunday are two championship debutants, Cathal Carolan and Darren Coen. While Carolan has got some inter-county miles under his belt in this year’s league campaign from the first Dublin game on, the only game time that Coen has seen in the senior side in the league this term has been a brief blood sub appearance on Leeside. Joining Cillian O’Connor and Kevin McLoughlin and the pair of debutants in attack is the experienced duo of Alan Freeman and Enda Varley.

Tony Duffy will be hoping that his stint in charge of the Mayo u21s is a bit more successful than the last man who sat in his seat, after moving up from three years in charge of the minor team. Duffy has taken over the side this year from Ray Dempsey, the same man he replaced at the u18 grade three seasons previously. Picking up u21 provincial titles was par for the course for Mayo under the Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes joint ticket in the latter part of the last decade, but for the past three seasons Mayo have not even reached a provincial final, being sent packing by Roscommon in each of the past three championships before the final.

This Saturday in Tuam Stadium (4pm) the Galway u-21 footballers take on old rivals Mayo in the Connacht semi-final.

By Colm Gannon

They may not be the current kings of the game, but the thought of getting one over Kerry is something that supporters from every other county still relishes. On Sunday in Elverys McHale Park, Mayo will start their Allianz National Football League campaign looking to give those there in support of the green and red that very same satisfaction come full time, and set themselves up nicely to retain their division one status at the very least.

Leitrim 0-9

Roscommon 1-11

The 3,000 or so who paid into McHale Park on Wednesday evening got more than their money’s worth from this clash between the hosts and last year’s All Ireland champions. Extra time was needed by Mayo to send them into next weekend’s semi-final against Roscommon, but even getting to extra time was something that looked to be beyond Mayo in the early stages of the second half, as Galway had a number of chances to pull well ahead of Mayo, but a stream of wides from the Tribesmen eventually came back to haunt them.