Search Results for 'Stephen Rochford'

Was it a penalty? Probably not looking at the replays, but Aidan O’Shea has been fouled and dragged down enough times in his inter-county career and not gotten a free he deserved, some day a break was going to have to go his way.

There's no more room for error for the Mayo seniors of 2016, after five successive Connacht titles, rather than looking forward to a Sunday afternoon showdown for the Nestor Cup, they are back on the chicken and chips circuit of the qualifiers for the first time in six years looking to rebuild their fortunes on the backstreets of the championship. The first step in moving from those backstreets to the main streets is tomorrow afternoon when they host a dangerous visitor from Ulster at 3.30pm

It's time for the talking to be done on the pitch. Leaving MacHale Park after Mayo's lethargic performance against Galway, disillusioned and bewildered, I now find myself with a nervous excitement as Mayo have to navigate their way to Croke Park via the qualifier route. Who knows where it will take us. It's a new experience for some of the team and an experience some of the others have only been through once (the nightmare loss to Longford in 2010), which brings its own pressure, lose and you're out. Defeat will mean it will be the first time in six years Mayo won't be making the trip east to play in Croke Park. To coin a phrase from Sir Alex Ferguson “it's squeaky bum time”.

Mayo have been drawn to play Fermanagh on July 9 in their first qualifier appearance since 2010. It does pose the toughest draw they could have got however home advantage should make them overwhelming favourites. Fermanagh  have two seriously good forwards in Tomas Corrigan and Sean Quigley, and their midfielder and captain Eoin Donnelly is an inspirational player for his county but we  are dealing with a seasoned Mayo team who should be more than capable of dealing with their threat, Naturally Fermanagh folk are gutted as an away trip to Mayo was the last thing they wanted. It really was the nightmare draw for the Ernesiders. Incidentally Mayo are priced at 1/12 to prevail while you can get 7/1 on Fermanagh. I’m mystified at such short odds on Mayo.

There was a genuinely eerie feeling at McHale Park last Saturday evening around 8.30pm. Galway had just beaten the home side by 1-12 to 0-12 and large numbers of Mayo supporters just sat in the stand numbed and perplexed by what had happened.

For the first time since 2010, Mayo will not be preparing for the show piece occasion in Connacht after Galway came to Castlebar and knocked them off their perch with a closing surge that left the five-in-a-row Connacht champions backed into the corner and unable to swing their way out of it, as Galway hit them with body blow after body blow before the bell was finally rung and the maroon and white mens arms was raised in victory.

With the first championship hurdle out of the way in London, Mayo are back on home soil this weekend and the visit of the old rivals from south of the border is the main attraction. For Mayo manager Stephen Rochford this is the day he's been waiting for since he took over the side late last year.