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Over the past few weekends there has been much made of the huge decline in spectator interest in the Railway Cup.

Garrymore v Charlestown

Over the past few weekends there has been much made of the huge decline in spectator interest in the Railway Cup.

Mayo will entertain Roscommon in their final FBD League game of the season in Ballyhaunis on Sunday. Gollowing on from last weekend’s comprehensive win over a poor Sligo IT side John O’Mahony will be hoping that his side can wrap up their warm up to the league with a second win on the bounce.

With the front door closed by Galway after the Connacht final, Mayo go in search of squeezing themselves through the back door starting with Tyrone tomorrow afternoon. The two-time All Ireland champions, who were kicked to touch at the quarter-final stage of the Ulster championship by Down and have come through the first two rounds of the qualifiers, seeing off Louth and a 13-man Westmeath side last weekend, to arrive in Croke Park with a bit of steam built up.

Over the past few weekends there has been much made of the huge decline in spectator interest in the Railway Cup.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog. With winter's darkness practically in our rear-view mirror and next Sunday heralding the start of spring, it is time for us to start checking out the new faces on the county panels and see if all the old stagers are back in the fold and if they are carrying any excess baggage around the midriff and buttocks. Are the young guns up to the job in hand and is there another year or two in the auld lads? Those are the questions that will be up for debate over the coming few weeks.

Mayo, as you know, start with a home game against Derry in Ballina on Sunday. While it is true that our preparations haven’t been perfect, with sloppy displays in the FBD league, preparations in the last two weeks have gone really well according to reports! Some of the ‘big guns’ were out last weekend in Kilmallock, where Cork were the opposition. Mayo scored 2-12 in that game against a full Cork outfit. The game ended in a draw and apparently it was a good workout for all concerned. Trevor Mortimer has returned to the fray after a couple of weeks sunning himself in South Africa and Ronan McGarrity was back at midfield having returned from his honeymoon. Mayo were as near full strength as possible, with only the injured Conor Mortimer not featuring as he had minor surgery on a broken nose received a week earlier. After this game and another workout on Sunday morning against a Mayo u21 selection management would more than likely have made their minds up on a starting 15 for Sunday. At the time of writing the Mayo team hasn’t yet been selected but I will be surprised if it isn’t Clarke, Vaughan, Cafferkey, Liam O’Malley, Gardiner, Cunniffe, Pat Kelly, McGarrity, Parsons, Trevor Mortimer, Dillon, Padden, Conor Mortimer, Barry Moran, and Andy Moran. If Conor Mortimer isn’t selected then I expect Mickey Sweeney might get the nod here as he scored a goal and two points from three efforts against Cork. I believe we will get our campaign off to a winning start on Sunday. Derry are missing quite a few of their stars as I believe Mark Lynch, Enda Muldoon, Niall McCusker, Kevin McCloy, Colin Devlin, and Paddy Bradley are not available on Sunday for one reason or another.

Time has ticked by very quickly since Mayo took their final bow in the championship for 2008 on a warm August Saturday in Croke Park, slipping out of the championship at the hands of the eventual winners, Tyrone, by a solitary point. And with Cormac Reilly’s final whistle that day attention turned to 2009 and the talk of the pubs and sidelines as to what went wrong over the past two years. Well one thing is for sure, John O’Mahony is still in the hot seat and will remain there for the next couple of years after being given a new deal in the autumn. Who will make up his side this Sunday and for the rest of the year will be talking points for the next few weeks as a side begins to take shape as the opening rounds of the National League slip by.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog.