Search Results for 'Michael Plunkett'

On a weekend that saw Mayo hang on for dear life to their division one status, you would imagine that would be this week's main topic of conversation, however the Mayo u21's rise from the dead in Markievicz Park against Roscommon in the Connacht final shades the limelight from their senior counterparts in what was a very satisfactory weekend all round for Mayo GAA. We all remember the 2013 minor final between Mayo and Roscommon for Liam Irwin’s stunning goal and Mayo hanging on for dear life at the end, the u21 final was a repeat, only three years later of course, with a lot more recognisable and familiar players on show.

Michael Plunkett wasn’t the man that you would have expected to pop up and score the winner in this epic encounter in Sligo, but the Ballintubber man showed nerves of steal to edge Mayo ahead in injury time of a dramatic encounter.

The weekend after the nation celebrated the 1916 Rising, Mayo are looking to stage their own rising in the U21 ranks and will head to the ground named after Countess Markievicz in Sligo tomorrow evening to do so. It has been seven years since Mayo last claimed the JJ Fahy Cup, in the same venue, beating Sligo 3-14 to 1-8 in the provincial decider.

Mayo booked their place in the Connacht u21 final for the first time in seven years in Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada on Saturday night thanks to a four goal haul in a 20 minute period either side of half time on a sun splashed evening.

New Mayo u21 manager Michael Solan has named a very strong looking team for his sides outing against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday evening. The majority of this years crop of u21s were involved in the All Ireland minor winning campain three years ago with a number of players making the step up to the senior side in recent years. 

It will be seven years this year since Mayo last claimed the Connacht u21 title. Since then Galway have gone on to claim two All Ireland titles at the grade and Roscommon have appeared in two All Ireland finals, while both of the Connacht minnows, Leitrim and Sligo, have appeared in provincial finals. In the last six u21 campaigns Mayo have managed just three wins out of nine games, all at the preliminary round stage, beating Leitrim in 2010 and 2015 and Galway in 2012 before they exited the competition at the next stage.

If Breaffy are going to claim their first ever senior county title, they are certainly going to earn it. After topping a group that included fellow semi-finalists Knockmore, they saw off arguably the fourth best team in the county in Garrymore in their quarter-final win. On Sunday they backed that up with a steamrolling of the defending county champions Ballintubber to set up a final on the bank holiday weekend against fellow local rivals Castlebar Mitchels. This will be a repeat of the 2013 final between the sides, with a few little angles thrown into the mix.