Search Results for 'Pat Holmes'

After hearing Joe Brolly on the Saturday Night Show a few weeks ago on about player burn out and injuries because of over training it made for a fascinating listen and really struck a chord. I’m having my fourth surgery in six years today in the Beacon hospital in Dublin. I put my body through the mill for club and county and played games that I really shouldn’t have, most notably in 1999, when my injury nightmare started.

Half-an-hour after his sides nightmare on the field had come to an end, joint Mayo manger Pat Holmes tried to put some semblance on a shambolic display that saw his side beaten from pillar to post by Dublin on Saturday night. His initial thoughts on the game were brief and succinct saying: “I am disappointed, very disappointed.”

Two weeks is a long time in sport. All of a sudden after two very impressive wins in the National League things look rosy in the Mayo camp as they sit proudly at the summit of division one. We have to be clear on this, Mayo are not going to win every game left in the league (maybe they will). The management are still learning and their most important lesson came when Tyrone visited MacHale Park. You cannot but be impressed by the way they and the players have responded, a thrashing of Monaghan followed by a hard fought win away against Derry in Celtic Park.

The Mayo management have continued their rotation policy for Sunday’s game against Derry in round four of the National Football League. Mayo have made a total of five changes from last weeks starting 15.

Mayo will make the long trek to Celtic Park on Sunday to take on Derry in the fourth round of the National Football League. This will be the third Ulster opposition that Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly’s side have faced on the bounce after their loss to Tyrone in round two, and their win over Monaghan last Sunday.

Mayo joint manager Pat Holmes was happy with his sides performance on Sunday in their win over Monaghan, but there's still plenty room of improvement he said: “We created loads of chances, we have a bit of work to do yet and things to improve on, but we were looking for an improvement on our performance the last day, we would have been disappointed with that but we knew that we were better than we showed the last day and in fairness to the boys they came out and played very, very well.”

He's been earmarked as one of the players who could have a breakout year with Mayo this season, but for Castlebar Mitchels defender Patrick Durcan it's all about working hard and improving each week.

Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly had to make the first big decisions of their tenure as Mayo joint managers when culling the panel after a recent challenge game against Clare. The two biggest and most talked about casualties are Gavin Duffy and Enda Varley. Duffy’s inclusion in the panel last year certainly gave the county a lift with his professional athletic background and obvious experience of big match days. However as the year went on and there was no sight of him in a Mayo jersey his much anticipated return to a Mayo jersey became more of a fascination with “what was the point in having him in the panel”. I was at every Mayo match last year and on every occasion his whereabouts was discussed by media men and women from all over the country.

The three week break in the National league came at a good time for the Mayo footballers and for joint managers Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly. It will give them time to work on certain issues that were so badly exposed by the Tyrone blanket defence, however it still did not detract the doubters and the critics from expressing their obvious concerns.

It wasn’t as if we weren’t warned. We expected a Tyrone backlash, we didn’t think it would be so convincing. The scrutiny and criticism directed at Mickey Harte’s Tyrone after their capitulation against Monaghan in the first round more than galvanised the red hand for their trip to Castlebar. Sports writers, commentators, analysts, and even Mickey Harte’s most loyal supporters questioned his credentials and his team; they’re as good as dead it was declared.