Search Results for 'Lee Keegan'

When 15 minutes before throw in, it was announced that Footballer of the Year - Lee Keegan wouldn’t be starting there was an air of fear amongst the Mayo supporters who made the pilgrimage back to Croke Park on Bank Holiday Monday. But once the ball was thrown in that unease was soon vanquished as Mayo went right at Roscommon and rolled them over in impressive style at the second time of asking.

Having shot the lights out in attack in Limerick on the previous Saturday against Cork, the Mayo attack misfired last Sunday against Roscommon, so on Monday they'll be looking for much better return. Registering just four points in the second half that stretched out to 42 minutes is a poor return in any man's language. Cillian O'Connor had very poor day with his shooting, but the Ballintubber attacking ace is more than capable of turning that around this time out. He scored just three points over the 80 odd minutes of action - just one of them coming from play.

Two weeks ago I was fully convinced Mayo would get the better of Cork when the game was in the melting pot. Last Sunday in Croke Park I almost had a seizure and nearly required a defibrillator as fear gripped me for the final 10 minutes against our Connacht rivals Roscommon in the All-Ireland quarter final. A statement issued by Bray Wanderers recently was described in the national media as being “bat-shit crazy”. The game between Mayo and Roscommon was worse.

Following last Sunday's action-packed All Ireland SFC quarter-final draw, Roscommon and Mayo return to Croke Park next Monday for an eagerly anticipated replay.

They don’t make it easy on the faithful, but the Mayo congregation will head to church at least once more this summer after a dramatic draw with near neighbours Roscommon on Sunday in Croke Park. There were more than a few decades of the Rosary said by the traveling worshipers down the final few minutes of injury time as Mayo created and fluffed a few chances to win the game and the devotions were dedicated to the full time whistle blowing when Roscommon looked to steal it right at the end.

With 18-minutes of this game gone Mayo were trailing by five points on a score of 0-6 to 0-1 and were being posed a number of serious questions by a hard running and quick thinking Clare outfit, but over the remaining 52 minutes they outscored their hosts by 2-13 to 0-7 to book their place in round four of the All Ireland qualifiers in a fortnights time.

It wasn’t pretty for a long time, but when it came to the crunch Mayo dug deep and ground out the win the required against Derry in MacHale Park. The wide count almost tallied the scores for Mayo on the day, as they looked like they might kick themselves out of the championship and only for a late rally they could very well have been looking at the rest of the summer free from inter-county action.

Mayo supporters were hoping that this weekend would be one for making preparations for the Connacht final in a weeks time, but it's the long road for the faithful - for a second year in a row. Being knocked out of Connacht by Galway for a second successive year is what happened and tomorrow evening in MacHale Park - Derry come calling and there is no room for error anymore.

On Saturday a lot of questions will be answered as Derry come to Elvery's MacHale Park for a do or die qualifier game against Mayo. Again we find ourselves having to take the scenic route in pursuit of glory; again our county seems divided with opinion about the prospects of our team.

There has been a seismic shift in football power in Connacht in the last four years. After Mayo's 17 point drubbing of Galway in Salthill in 2013 it looked like it would take the Tribesmen light years to make up the ground. After slowly narrowing the gap in 2014 (seven point Mayo victory) and 2015 (four point Mayo victory) they have now caught and surpassed us, beating us twice on the spin in crucial Connacht championship semi-finals.