Messages

 Horan is definitely getting close to his best with this team. I actually think he's mighty close to having the right forward mix too. He rightly identified full forward as being our main problem position and thus this causing our lack of goal scoring chances in any given game. In 2004 and 2006 our lack of a full forward was hidden by Ciaran Mac's superb distribution and all round general play at centre forward. Problem with this was once you stopped Mac or an easier way as (Kerry figured in 2004) cut off the supply of primary position around the middle third ,Connoreen and O'Neill/Trevor or any of the inside line would struggle to get any scores. Horan has addressed this by moving Andy to full forward as an out ball for our offence mixed with Vaughan and Boyle attacking from deep. This also creates more space for Dillion to pick off scores and accurate passes into the full forwards. This has created one problem though and that is who should play centre forward. He has tried O' Connor here but this hasn't worked out for Cillian who has struggled and also it robs us of probably our best inside forward. I have no doubt Pat Hart and Seamus O' Shea's injuries have robbed him of the option of trying somebody else here up to now. He has also tried Freeman here as well but unfortunately Alan's form is a bit hit and miss at the moment so he is better suited to an impact sub role.
  So where does this leave us for the quarter final? Some people have suggested that Aidan O' Shea should be picked at CF or he should be picked at full with Andy reverting to CF. Personally I think we should go with Seamus (if fit) at CF depending on the opposition with Cillian back in the corner and one of Conroy or Doherty in the other corner and Andy at Full. The reason I'd go for Seami is I  thought he played well there in 2010 and I like the potential pairing of Aiden and Barry Moran in midfield. Also to spring a suprise for the likes of Kerry/Kildare , we shouldn't be afraid of having Aiden as an option at full and Andy at CF. Doherty could thrive of being fed ball of a big target man with his eye for goal( Cillian as well) and unlike Tomas O' Connor we know Aiden isn't afraid to go for his own score as we saw in his debut season!

Actually think it might be on TV3 (if they cancel Stuart Little 2). RTE have a game (presumably Laois/Meath) pencilled in for 3.00 until about 5.30. Surely TV3 are showing one?

Maybe before the GAA decided somehow that more tv coverage was a bad thing. Just come and sample the Hyde's excellent atmopshere 

Syferus, since you seem to know it all, can you recommend a good parking and exit strategy for the Hyde, will be coming in via Athlone as will probably the other 10K Kildare supporters?

Unfortunately Dinny you're going to learn the hard way that there is only one way to leave the hyde in your car i.e slowly and in a traffic jam!

[Even when the ticket collector suggested Sligo might put up a decent fight it was met with - no, don't think so.]

Eamonn turns 37 this year, not sure when.

I must be blind so and mixing up the red and green jersied people leaving and ignoring the presentation with Mayo people. Respect? Do me a favour!

As for the arrogance - there are many who aren't but you have to accept there are loads who are. Unless my ears were failing me I heard loads of it coming down on the train from Dublin. Even when the ticket collector suggested Sligo might put up a decent fight it was met with - no, don't think so. Those 4 at least were better than the clown from Doohoma who never shut up about Mayo football and how much he knew the whole flippin way down. Thank God for the change at Athlone!

The point is that those gobshites would annoy me (and others like me in Mayo) as much as they annoy you.

The other point is not everybody in red and green left before the presentation.

And what would a clown from Doohoma know about football ?

That's a fair auld insult to clowns comparing them to somebody from Doohoma

Fair enough lads but I think ye see where I'm coming from. We all have our gobshites I suppose. Ye know the way when you're travelling on public transport - there's always one weirdo who you hope and pray doesn't sit beside him. Well I'd a long day at a christening the previous day and guess what - the weirdo sat beside me. Hard to describe this unless you saw and heard it. Not a well man at all at all.

Fair enough Seanie I understand what a trip down on the train with the standard mental case sitting beside you and loosing a big championship match to big rival can do to amplify a hangover. Been there before too many times as I'm sure many of my fellow county men have and good luck in the next round from what I saw on Sunday you have a fair chance at making the quarters.

[Even when the ticket collector suggested Sligo might put up a decent fight it was met with - no, don't think so.]

Eamonn turns 37 this year, not sure when.

I must be blind so and mixing up the red and green jersied people leaving and ignoring the presentation with Mayo people. Respect? Do me a favour!

As for the arrogance - there are many who aren't but you have to accept there are loads who are. Unless my ears were failing me I heard loads of it coming down on the train from Dublin. Even when the ticket collector suggested Sligo might put up a decent fight it was met with - no, don't think so. Those 4 at least were better than the clown from Doohoma who never shut up about Mayo football and how much he knew the whole flippin way down. Thank God for the change at Athlone!

The point is that those gobshites would annoy me (and others like me in Mayo) as much as they annoy you.

The other point is not everybody in red and green left before the presentation.

And what would a clown from Doohoma know about football ?

That's a fair auld insult to clowns comparing them to somebody from Doohoma

Just about able to put a few words on here now. Very disappointed with the result obviously but I'd see it as a major missed opportunity. We could easily have done it and when you factor in the 2010 clusterfcuk it just makes it worse. I've seen us in 5 Connacht finals and the 4 we've lost are by a combined 7 points. We really should have one or two more on the board over the last 15 years. Really sick walking out amidst hordes of Mayo people as the cup was being presented. It means nothing to ye at all.

Neither side played well but I expected both managments to have their homework done and so they did. I'd be a bit frustrated about our attempts to circumvent Mayo's tactics, think we had options that weren't explored or used way too late. Some second half scores were given away far too cheaply. O'Se obviously made a huge difference but our kickouts shouldn't have been going his way. I know Mayo missed quite a number of chances but a couple of ones we missed really cost us in the end. Pity one of them wasn't given as a point, it never seems to go that way...Our team are very fit and well prepared. We possibly deserved another crack at it but didn't get it.

On Mayo - I think Barney is right. A lot of people will downgrade Mayo's rating based on that performance but Sligo did a decent job at cutting off a lot of options for Mayo. Horan is a good manager who knows what he is at and is getting the players to work hard. i've no doubt they'll improve, the QF draw will be interesting.

This win meant plenty to me and everyone with me at the game (well maybe not my Sligo neighbours ). Maybe it's a north Mayo thing but I've had nothing but respect for this Sligo team and county over the last 15 or 16 years. It isn't as if you haven't beat us during that period and we have had probably our most successful teams since 50/51 during this time too albeit without  landing the big prize. To be honest I'm getting a little tired of all this Mayo arrogance thing from Sligo posters as if we are some big bad bullies because we are confident of winning when we meet in the championship. I think it's classic chip on the shoulder stuff from being the less successful neighbouring county. The facts are we are a good team who have gone close to wining Sam over the past 20 years and we have consistently challenged at under age levels as well. We may not be good enough to win Sam this year or in the next few years but we have shown ourselves good enough to beat Sligo as they have been good enough to beat us over the past few seasons and it would be nice Seanie if you could have a bit more grace in defeat and show us a tiny bit more respect before you accuse us of not caring about winning back to back Nestor cups.

 Barry should be fine for the next game Lar barring injury( fingers crossed for the big man) because he got two yellows rather than a straight red, which doesn't carry a suspension as far as I know.

How will the Michaela verdict affect Tyrone? Was heartbreaking news

Such tragedies are no strangers to Tyrone over the last few years, alas.

In fairness Tyrone are due some serious amount of good karma after what's happened to them over the last couple of years. I was at the league game against us after Cormac McAnallen died and when Tyrone took the pitch it was strangely uplifting moment on such a sad occasion. Tyrone people carried themselves with allot of dignity that day.

Read on.

I did but the retraction still doesn't mask the obivious terminal symptoms first spotted by Proferssor McHugh on league Sunday a while back

I'm no fan of the wee lad, but I think there's a lot of OTT stuff here. We keep telling each other it's an amateur game, nobody is forced to participate, etc. That being the case, the lad doesn't owe anything to anybody and is perfectly entitled to decide he's not going to commit his time if he's not getting the enjoyment (which is what it's all about, right?) in return.

Wild and whirling words about throwing the toys out of the pram, singing from the "roughtops" (sic), etc. are unwarranted. As far as I know, he's said nothing at all to the press. He's just told the manager he's not available any more. His business; nobody else's.

[Edit] I see there are suggestions he informed the press of his intentions in advance. Be that as it may, the substantive point stands.

We'll that's it . The Meath that Mayo people loved and hated at the same time is well and truly dead. R.I.P. to our last link to the Neanderthals and proof of Darwin's evolution theory. This is the true price of the Celtic tiger and all those Dubs moving out to Ashbourne and Navan etc.......

Im not a Wum and was a pretty seious footballer aome time ago  i have played in a connacht final if you really need to know so i think i know football and supporters fairly well.

Quoting mayo mick is probably accurate to the inner thoughts of all the mayo posters but he is a clown, although at least he has the balls to express it, the rest of the mayoites are to long in the grass to express there real views public thats why you get 27 pages of tripe, ie ballghadereen, bellaghy, mort, who are the real favs, all to deflect from a mayo mindset that really hopes sligo give them a game so they dont go into the qtr final without getting a game. Thats mayos real worry, there certain of winning make no mistake and will belittle the likes of mayo mick for exposing there inner thoughts.

Get in there Sligonian while you've mellowed slightly lately there's nothing like Mayo to get you fired up. And in my own defence I did reply to an earlier post of yours by saying the heart says Mayo by 30 points but the head says a much tighter affair(maybe only a 25pt win). I can't be more honest than that

Im not a Wum and was a pretty seious footballer aome time ago  i have played in a connacht final if you really need to know so i think i know football and supporters fairly well.

Fair enough no offence intended. I would have loved to have been good enough even to play FBD for my county but unfortunately what God give'th in talent for a foreign sport I played he took away from our native sport that I love.
Having represented you're county at the top level still doesn't explain you're relentless pursuit for this perceived arrogance of Mayo posters. So far you're only evidence of this arrogance is a few wild quotes from probably the most excitable and enthusiastic Mayo supporter in history and other Mayo posters saying they are confident of a win on Sunday. Are Mayo people not allowed to voice their confidence in their team. Did you ever feel or were you accused of being arrogant if you told people you were confident of wining a big game in your playing days?

 Good luck to Tyrone and my Rossie brethren tomorrow. Should be a game played in the right spirit i.e tough but fair , going by last years meeting. Tyrone are favourites but their wouldn't be many west of the Shannon who would be surprised if the Rossies dug out a victory tomorrow. Great to see Compton  and Niall Daly stepping up to the plate very impressed when I saw them in the u21's they really stood out IMHO.

Im not going to waste my time explaining what ye already know.

I will just say check out the gems from mayo mick for starters including

"its div 1 v div3 thats all the analysis needed"

Or

"hope sligo give us a good game.starting so late we need to get up to speed quickly"


Open signs of OVER confidence which i kind of like

So you are quoting Mayo Mick Good man you are either a WUM or very deluded. If you are a WUM fair play to you , it certainly adds to general circus around any Mayo thread. If not I hope you never played any serious football cause the size of the chips on your shoulders would have you in serious trouble
And now for some Mayo arrogance just to give some balance. Mayo and Doherty/Varley have been given a fairly serious pressure grenade lobbed in by the Mort with the family statement and everything that goes with it. If we are serious team this should be irrelevant and we should go about our business on Sunday like normal. Sligo pose some very important challenges if we want to retain the Nestor cup. Tony Taylor if on form could do serious damage , not just in terms of wining primary possesion but also in stopping our running game at our own half back line. Also I think the real danger men in the middle third for Sligo are Harrison and Huges. They did some amount of damage against Galway and along with Costello were the launchpad for the most attacks. I think this is where we can curtail Marren and Kelly rather than trying to do the traditional double up marking tactics.
Also I think we'll need Dillion and O connor to have big games going forward cause I think quick accurate ball into Any and Doc we'll be needed to vary our attack and make space for our running game. The key for us is composure at the start( I know not really a Mayo trait) cause Sligo are going to go in for the kill early especially since Connor-gate is making us look like clowns again and it'll be tough for Sligo to not fall into the trap of thinking same old typical soft self-imploding Mayo and that it'll be a rerun of 2010!

 For Sligoman2 and Syferus here's a link to some Mayo over-confidence :
http://mayogaablog.com/?p=10706
  and for the rest of the Sligo boys here's a trip down mermory lane:
http://spailpin.blogspot.ie/2012/07/1975-was-it-really-mayos-worst-ever.html

Anyone have an idea, where I can watch this game online. Im in New Zealand and would hate to miss it

If TV3 steam it live it shouldn't be too hard to watch it on the web. You'll have to clone an Irish IP address but that'll be easy.A quick google search will throw a heap of sites that do this.

Can you do the same cloning of an IP to watch RTE playa ?

Yep it's not too hard same with the BBC I player too.