Search Results for 'Donegal GAA'

Two minutes into injury time Adam Gallagher dropped his effort into the arms of Rory Beggan and it looked like Mayo weren’t going to be able to overcome a Monaghan side who were playing with 13 men for the final few minutes.

Three second half goals sent Mayo in the All Ireland semi-final against Cork in a fortnights time in Mullingar on Saturday. Frank Browne’s outfit showed plenty of fight and heart and no little skill in their win over the Ulster champions. It was a game that had it all, two yellow cards, a six point comeback, a goalkeeper getting injured and plenty of hard hits all over the field.

Fresh from putting in a man of the match performance, the first thing asked of Lee Keegan in the concrete catacombs under Croke Park as he waited to board the bus following Mayo's win over Donegal last Saturday night was, had he meant to go for goal when he scored Mayo's second and vital third pointer just after the break. "Absolutley, there's no debate and I'll take it to my grave if I have to," smiled the Westport powerhouse.

Mayo qualified for a mouth-watering All-Ireland semi final with Dublin after an emphatic and clinical display against Donegal in the quarter final. I’m not going to lie, I was worried about this one, and I wasn’t sure how Mayo would cope against a team with 14 or 15 players constantly behind the ball. It’s very easy to get the life sucked out you playing against such tactics; in this regard Mayo were superb.

And then there were eight. Watching the qualifier between Tyrone and Meath and Ger Canning announcing that Donegal seem to be into the quarter final after a struggle against Laois, I promptly let my Donegal wife Rita know that Mayo could now get drawn against Donegal. I knew it would happen, it was written in the stars, a chance for this Mayo team to right what went wrong in last year’s All-Ireland final. They could have got an easier draw in the likes of Cavan but getting pitted against Donegal - the All-Ireland champions, the team that made us sick to the pit of our stomachs last September means there is little needed in the line of motivation and complacency is gone out the window. It also means not much chat in the Casey house this week. I hope and expect to have bragging rights at 5.30pm next Sunday.

Belief is everything in sport and long before the GAA was heavily populated with sports psychologists, this current Donegal side always looked like their name was on the trophy irrespective of who they were playing in the All-Ireland final last Sunday. I do not think the intervention of any amount of psychology would have stopped them winning their second All- Ireland. For a combination of reasons they had acquired a belief that they would win this year’s title, unless maybe an exceptional team stood in their way. Mayo are a very good team but, unfortunately, just did not have a sufficient number of big powerful men in key positions throughout the field to deny this Donegal side. One line in particular could have done with a big strong ball winner. If we had a Michael Murphy at 14, then I believe Mayo would have walked the steps on Sunday evening as champions. That is how close it was. But we do not appear to have that extra jewel at the moment. The fact that the aforementioned Michael Murphy is half a Mayo man does not make it any easier to accept!