Search Results for 'Enda Gilvarry'

In the immediate aftermath of Mayo’s win over London last Sunday, as the celebrations died down, the only thing that Alan Dillon was getting ready for was whoever comes out of the hat tomorrow night in the All Ireland quarter-final draw. “Our focus is the All Ireland series, we’ll be keeping the heads down for the next few weeks and focusing.” The Ballintubber clubman was honest in his appraisal of how his side performed on the day saying: “We made it difficult at times for ourselves, our use of the ball at some stages in the game wasn’t as clinical as it should have been. We’ve a lot to work on, it’s a short period now until the next game and it was good to see some of the lads get game time on the pitch, we’ll really put a huge effort in over the next two weeks and all roads lead to Croke Park. We let it drop for periods today, which is disappointing and when we got our chances we took the goals.”

What a wonderful occasion last Sunday’s Connacht finals day was in McHale Park. I arrived in Castlebar at 11am and already could feel the buzz and anticipation as many supporters were parking miles out the Charlestown road at that early hour. The day was not as sunny as expected but it was very humid and extremely energy sapping for the players, and even the well prepared Mayo players who did not have to get out of second gear were down on all fours at the end gasping for air.

Mayo 3-7

While the Mayo senior team are looking to make it three Connacht senior titles on the trot on Sunday afternoon, at high-noon Enda Gilvarry will looking for his Mayo minors to end Roscommon’s dreams of making it a similar feat at the minor grade. The Mayo manager who is in his first year in charge of the minors, knows it is not going to be an easy task. “They’re going for three in a row and that speaks for itself in Connacht over the last number of years. In fairness to them they’ve dominated Connacht over the past number of years. They’ve beaten Mayo in each of those years as well, it’s a huge challenge, but no more than the challenge that faced us when we were up against Galway in the semi-final.”

Wow, can you believe it, London are in the Connacht final after one of the most enthralling and entertaining games the province has produced in a long while. Game over at half time with London being an unassailable 14 points ahead, or so you thought.

Last Saturday evening in a windy McHale Park, the Mayo minors opened up the championship account for the year with a comprehensive 10 point win over Leitrim setting up this Sunday’s semi-final against Galway. Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser this week ahead of the game, Mayo manger Enda Gilvarry looking back on the Leitrim game said, “It’s good to be up and running, we could have done better, but coming into any championship game you’d take a 10 point win.” He also pointed out that it was a hectic week for a number of his players last week. “It was a difficult week for some of the lads, who were coming off the Leaving Cert and then facing into club championship games the next day.”

The Mayo Senior championship was in overdrive last weekend (I am sure James Horan was waiting anxiously by his phone to ensure all his players came through their respective games) and while I was not surprised and had predicted most of the results, the drubbing Castlebar dished out to Breaffy left me a little shocked especially as I had them pencilled in for my “value bet of the week”.

Mayo: 1-15

Not too long after the final whistle on Sunday evening, Mayo will be heading in one of three different directions. Leap-frogging Cork into the semi-final round of the league, retaining their division one status and their league season coming to an end on Sunday, or falling through the trap door and into division two of the league for the first time since the mid-nineties (the early part of the 2000s saw division one divided into two different sections).

What was to be expected of the Mayo senior footballers at the dawn of 2012? Progress was what people wanted to see. But how much realistic progress could people expect from James Horan’s side in year two of his project. Knocking out the All Ireland champions at the quarter final stage was a pretty big thing to progress on 12 months later. But that they did and some more.