Search Results for 'Chris Barrett'

The Mayo senior footballers will welcome Kerry to McHale Park for their second game in the 2011 National Football League on Sunday. The visit of Jack O’Connor’s side will pose another difficult examination of James Horan’s early tenure in charge of the green and red. Last weekend Horan picked up his first piece of silverware in the Mayo bainisteoir’s bib when they saw off the challenge of John Maughan’s NUIG by 1-14 to 0-11. Horan would have surely preferred a sterner test from the students who failed to fire for long periods of the game as Mayo cruised to victory with ease.

Mayo 1-14

This evening’s meeting of Mayo and NUIG in McHale Park in the home final of the FBD League will bring together two of the men who put their name in the hat for the Mayo manager’s job last year. James Horan was the choice at the end of the search to fill the spot left vacant by John O’Mahony, but John Maughan who is now over the students was right in the running until he decided to withdraw from the race not long before the finish.

Just over six months since Mayo last played a senior inter-county game the road is opening up in front of them for another year. On Sunday in Ballinamore in Leitrim the newest version of the Mayo senior team will take to the field under the guidance of James Horan for the first time. Since his appointment at the end of September, Horan has only been able to run his eye over his new charges a handful of times, the last time last weekend in a series of inter-squad challenge games and previous to that in a number of trial games in November.

Tourmakeady v Ballyhaunis,

Three weeks on from the being beaten by Sligo in the preliminary round of the Connacht Championship, Mayo will roll up to the midlands for the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers. The first round of the backdoor competition, while not quite uncharted territory, is one that is still not too familiar to Mayo players and supporters. In fact Mayo have only entered the qualifier system at this stage once before, also under the tutelage of O’Mahony in 2007. That year a comfortable win over Cavan in McHale Park was followed up with a humbling inside the city walls of Derry by the Oak Leaf county in the second round.

Rumour has it that there will be a raft of changes for our match v Longford tomorrow in Pearse Park. I expect that management have examined every available option for this encounter. I would say it has been a tough couple of weeks for everyone involved since the championship defeat. Management will be fully aware of Mayo’s poor ‘back door ’record in years past. Both Westmeath and Fermanagh have shortened our summer on two occasions. In fact we have only managed to secure back to back victories when going through the back door on a single occasion, in 2002, when we saw off three teams in a row, beating Roscommon, Limerick, and Tipperary on that occasion.

Mayo will give a championship bow to four new players on Saturday evening against Sligo. Coming into the side for their first starts in championship action are Belmullet's Chris Barrett, Breaffy's Seamus O'Shea, Aghamore's Alan Freeman, and Garrymore's Enda Varley in a new look Mayo side. There are five changes from the team that lost to Cork in the National League final, with a fit again duo of Keith Higgins coming into corner back for Liam O'Malley and Ronan McGarrity replacing the injured Alan Dillion. Tom Cunniffe will replace Trevor Howley at the lynchpin centre half back position, with O'Shea moving to centre half forward.

Irrespective of the result in Markievich Park tomorrow evening, you will meet the happy chap who will have consoling words for the losers along the lines “it's not the end of the world”, “you always have the back door”, and “anyway where were we going this year?” These platitudes may all be wonderful to the guy who hasn’t prepared for a match of this magnitude, but try telling that to the players or management of the losing side and I can guarantee you it will sound very hollow!

Mayo 0-13