Search Results for 'Michael Meehan'

Mayo 1-11

Last Sunday morning was a case in point. I was haring down the motorway to Mullingar from the fireworks in Croke Park on Saturday night when I phoned a friend to see if he was going to the Galway v Westmeath game.

Galway 2-9 Westmeath 1-10

Galway produced an epic, lyrical performance in the first half against Dublin last Sunday afternoon. The standing ovation they received as they trouped off at half time for their Jaffa cakes and tea summed up the mood of the paying customers in the stand as they found themselves whipped up into a real "feel-good" moment by the superb free-flowing football of the forwards.

For what it’s worth, and irrespective of what you might have heard on the streets since, I didn’t meet a single person who believed that Mayo would beat Galway before last Sunday’s game in Tuam. That is why that one point victory had people giddy with excitement after the match. It was an incredible result. Let’s be honest here for a minute. The form shown in Ballina exactly one week earlier against a mediocre Dublin outfit was to say the least very ordinary. Yet here, a week later, 14 of that very same starting 15 are brimming with confidence after taking the scalp of the form team of 2009. It’s not too difficult to analyse the reasons for the victory. Put the maroon and white of Galway in front of a green and red jersey and you have a different attitude and approach to the whole occasion. Clearly it’s a mindset. There is no doubt that there would have been lots of smiles, not to mention a bounce in the step of all who participated in the morale boosting victory last weekend. Because the win is worth an awful lot more than the two points on offer that more or less saw Mayo scramble away from the relegation zone and into mid- table that will surely guarantee Mayo division one football next year. This victory reminded everyone that the age-old rivalry that exists between these two teams is very much alive and well. Long may it continue! Both sides just love having a go at one another, out on the pitch and extending into the terraces too.

It’s often said that a week is a long time in politics. Can I suggest then that three weeks is an absolute eternity in football? Just a few short weeks ago, all the talk around these parts was that Galway would be a shoe in to retain their Connacht championship. The fact that they would be playing the Connacht final (assuming it is Mayo) in Pearse Stadium added to that theory because the general perception is that the seaside venue is definitely worth a few scores to the Galway men. But the pendulum has very definitely shifted in the last two matches of the national league. Galway were the form team of the league for the first five rounds, getting standing ovations from their ecstatic home supporters on a number of occasions such was the quality of their play. But after a rather slow start by Mayo in their opening rounds, they have very definitely come thundering into the equation again as serious provincial contenders after their impressive one-point victory over the up to then unbeaten Galwegians in Tuam a couple of weeks ago. Mayo followed up on that victory with a very creditable performance against the All Ireland champions in McHale Park last Sunday, where both sides took a share of the spoils.

How they perform against the current All-Ireland champions will tell us a lot about the real progress being made under Liam Sammon, and a win, especially up there, would do wonders for team morale and put the team in a good position going into a month with four consecutive games.

It was a pleasure to have been in Pearse Stadium last Sunday to watch the brilliant display of forward play by Caltra’s Michael Meehan.

Galway 1-16

After the NFL game in James Stephens Park in Ballina last Sunday, where Mayo and Dublin had just drawn in a dull, tedious, error-ridden pile of manure, I got chatting to a few local Maors and Ballina club men.