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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.

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.

By the time that the Galway League awoke from their slumber in this contest with the Mayo League they were chasing the game for a draw which would have sent them through to the knock-out stages of the Oscar Traynor Trophy. It was not to be for the Galway League and in all honestly it never looked like they would threaten Emmett Payton's goal over the course of a bitterly cold 90 minutes in Castlebar.

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.

Both Iorras Aontaithe and Westport United will be hoping that home advantage can give them a little bit extra on Sunday when they enter the FAI Junior Cup sixth round. Iorras Aontaithe will be hoping that they won’t be suffering any post Connacht Cup hangover from their elimination from the provincial cup at the hands of City United by a score of 3-1 last weekend.

“Even when we play away in Mayo we have to travel an hour and half to most places, but this is a bit further all right.” Iorras Aontaithe manager Eric Reilly jested about his side’s trip down the country this weekend in the FAI Junior Cup, the 250 plus mile down from their home in Carne Nash to south Cork and their opponents Kinsale.

Fairview Rangers 1

Fairview Rangers 1

There is not much to be said about Iorras Aontaithe’s run to the semi-final that hasn’t been said before. The north Mayo men who looked to be in free fall midway through the Super League season last summer, pulled themselves together in the home straight and pulled themselves clear of the relegation quagmire. Since then they have gone on to show the true quality that the Barony men possess, navigating eight rounds of the FAI Junior Cup to arrive in this Sunday’s semi-final. In a sort of homecoming Iorras will welcome Ballymun United to the home of Mayo soccer, Milebush, on Sunday with a place in the final up for grabs. For Iorras it offers them a chance to add an FAI Junior Cup to the FAI youths cup they won in 2005, and puts them up there with Westport United from 2006 as the only Mayo sides to bring home the national junior title.

There is only one place to be on Sunday and that’s in Belleek Park at 2.30pm, Westport United, who wrestled the lead back in the Super League last weekend, will make the trip north to take on the side who were leading the league for the past couple of weeks. Ballina Town, whose game was postponed against Snugboro United last weekend, will be eager to reclaim the top spot in the league from the three in a row-chasing Westport men. Currently Westport are three points ahead with a slender on-goal advantage in the goal difference stakes, while Ballina have a game in hand on the champions. A win here and if they pick up a win in their postponed game could see a six-point swing at the top with Ballina moving three points clear.