Connacht SFC Q/Final London v Mayo 29.5.11 in Ruislip

[ross matt]

Why can't Mayo ever play like that when they meet Roscommon??

Do any Mayo posters give themselves a chance vs Galway??

By the time Mayo/Galway match comes around it will take on a life of its own like it always does. Local derby.. traditional rivals etc. The London match will have lost alot of its significance by then. Galway had their own problems during the league also as we all know but both sides will see this fixture as a match they can win and position themselves to win a Connacht title. Fixtures like London/NY are nightmares for managers. I think they have to train heavily leading up to them and cant afford to peak in any way for matches like these. Horan and Mayo obviously had Galway in mind and their preparation was geared towards this. Mayo players not looking fresh would make sense if they were still training hard.

[highorlow]

- Playing a sweeper against London was not the way to go

Yes when I heard this I thought it was the most naive thing the management have done too date. A semi professional outfit having to play a sweeper against a bloody pub team doesn't bode well!

The only good thing about this is that Galway will arrive in Castlebar c**k sure of an easy win and we might catch them on the hop.

[highorlow]

Why can't Mayo ever play like that when they meet Roscommon??

Because we love you.

[Lar Naparka]

Personally, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to find the reasons for Mayo's dismal performance.
I'm convinced that many of the lads managed to give Horan the slip the previous night and had several pints too many.
They nearly paid the price.

[ludermor]

Well a few of them had no bother going out for a few pinits in London after the game ( even though they were susposed to be on a place striaght home??) so they werent too upset with their performances!

[AbbeySider]

Well a few of them had no bother going out for a few pinits in London after the game ( even though they were susposed to be on a place striaght home??) so they werent too upset with their performances!

FFS luder, its an amateur sport. If lads wanted to have a pint with their family and friends after the game then its none of your business.

Disgraceful comment 

[AbbeySider]

I'm convinced that many of the lads managed to give Horan the slip the previous night and had several pints too many.
They nearly paid the price.

Crazy statement and conclusion that tells us how little you know about how much modern players put in Lar

[GaillimhIarthair]

- Playing a sweeper against London was not the way to go

Yes when I heard this I thought it was the most naive thing the management have done too date. A semi professional outfit having to play a sweeper against a bloody pub team doesn't bode well!

The only good thing about this is that Galway will arrive in Castlebar c**k sure of an easy win and we might catch them on the hop.

We are in no position to be c**k sure going anywhere at the moment, especially Castlebar.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I'm with Abbeysider here, suggesting the players had pints the night before is way off the mark Lar. I know one player who had a Champions League final ticket and he didn't even ask if he could go because he didn't want his focus to come off the game. There was a lot of complacency at the back of some minds I guess. Perhaps it is just human nature.

Talking to the players after they were told no drink on the Sunday night. I think a couple might have waited on in London and I wouldn't begrudge them a couple of scoops. They get few enough chances and while they didn't do much to deserve a big pour, they're still four weeks away from Galway. It does distil the conflict between the professional attitudes expected of the players and the amateur reality.

[GalwayBayBoy]

- Playing a sweeper against London was not the way to go

The only good thing about this is that Galway will arrive in Castlebar c**k sure of an easy win and we might catch them on the hop.

Aye after being relegated I doubt we would be cocksure of beating anyone let alone Mayo on their own patch.

[muppet]

- Playing a sweeper against London was not the way to go

The only good thing about this is that Galway will arrive in Castlebar c**k sure of an easy win and we might catch them on the hop.

Aye after being relegated I doubt we would be cocksure of beating anyone let alone Mayo on their own patch.

I'm guessing that in a week or two we will have open warfare between the two sets of fans. Each side will be insisting how useless their own side is and go nuclear at any hint of their side being within an asses roar being able to win.

This will escalate and be reported nationally and maybe even internationally. Mayo will end up cheering Galway onto the field in a tribute to their unquestionable brilliance. Galway supporters will respond by invading the pitch before the match and carrying Mayo players off shoulder high and awarding them victory.

Galway fans will drink Castlebar dry singing we told ye we were useless. Mayo will nod and say:'aye ye were right.'

James Horan is a genius.

[Barney]

Wow!! We are some mess. We hoped a new management might bring some sort of order to things but they look like they have made things worse. Have any of our problems really been addressed. And then you read Andy Moran in the Mayo News today (note in particular the highlighted bit):

MAYO players aren't working hard enough and they must face up to their shortcomings in the coming weeks if they are to improve. That was the forthright view of the team's vice-captain, Andy Moran, in the aftermath of Sunday's close shave.
Speaking to The Mayo News shortly after Mayo came within a whisker of being the first team to lose to London in the championship for 34 years, the Ballaghaderreen forward admitted that big question marks now hang over the county squad again.
"Of course the question marks are going to be there, especially when you come down to London and you draw with them," he began.
"It's proper order that the question marks should be there and the question marks are there in our heads. We've to sort out these problems ourselves within our camp.
"I think, as players, myself and Alan [Dillon] need to pull lads together and we need to get this thing sorted. At the minute we're not doing what we want to do and we're not playing the way we want to play so we need to get it sorted.
"I don't think we're doing the work we should be doing," he added. "At training it's alright doing it but away from training you need to be looking after yourself. "I think we need to be in the pitch shooting, like Maurice Sheridan, out at night yourself, taking your strikes. When you get a chance, be it from a free or from play, against better teams and you don't take it, you're in trouble."
One of the issues being pondered on Sunday evening as the sun set on Ruislip was whether this was better or worse than last year's defeats to Sligo and Longford?
In terms of the result, obviously better, but Moran conceded that the fact that London had only won one game in Division 4 of the National League (against Kilkenny), certainly helped Mayo get over the line.
"It looked like Longford all over again really," he said. "Last year at this stage we got Sligo and they are a better team, a Division 2 team, than London who are a Division 4 team.
"They [Sligo] killed us off whereas this year we got a few cracks and breaks and it helped us. Fair play to Trevor Mortimer and Aidan O'Shea and Kevin McLoughlin, they really helped out when they came in and they're the reason we're still in the Connacht championship really."
The straight-talking Moran also confessed that defeat on Sunday could have ended his inter-county career, and that of a few others, but argued that this performance didn't make Mayo a bad side, merely an inconsistent one.
"You saw us in the league against some of the best teams, the Downs, Corks, Kerrys. . . 
"I think we can compete with the best of them, we just need to start doing the basics right, get our skill-sets right, start winning hard ball and just pushing on, playing championship football.
"At the minute we're too inconsistent. We can't slip to levels like we slipped to today. We need to be clinical in front of goal, we need to be the best we can be every day we go on the field. Today we weren't but we got away with it, thank God.
"Going out on the field myself I don't worry about results, it's performance and we didn't perform. We didn't perform against Monaghan, we performed against Antrim in a challenge and didn't perform against Offaly. There's definitely something wrong there and we need to get it right.
"I suppose when you're going from a base level of today there's only one way and it's up. That's the way we'll be looking at it."

How much do some of these fellas want to play for Mayo. The vast majority are extremely dedicated but do they go the extra mile. Yes I know they are amateurs but a lot of people give them support both emotionally and finacially and they should realise that they are privileged to be good enough to wear the jersey.

So what if we beat Galway? So what if we beat Roscommon or Leitrim? We know there is another dose of humiliation coming our way at some point. And there is even a lethargy in the support of Mayo. We have taken so many knocks that people are giving up on the concept of a Mayo team. The core support has reduced significantly now. Even the anger has subsided after painful defeats - we are greeted more by a resignation of where we stand. And then when a plan for the way forward is put out there it is rejected by the cosy cartel that is our County Board.

It looks like we are set for a generation of Mayo GAA being bankrupt both on and off the pitch.

[ludermor]

Well a few of them had no bother going out for a few pinits in London after the game ( even though they were susposed to be on a place striaght home??) so they werent too upset with their performances!

FFS luder, its an amateur sport. If lads wanted to have a pint with their family and friends after the game then its none of your business.

Disgraceful comment 

Oh FFS get over yourself,there standard line was the team was going straight home to Mayo after the game but there was a few lads out in the city after . They were almost the subject of the biggest embassasment in Mayo GAA history but they didnt seem too disappointed.

[passedit]

James Horan is a genius.

Further evidence of which I hear is a thirty minute 'game' without the ball at one of the recent Mayo training sessions. Now if he can only persuade the opposition to do the same

[the Deel Rover]

James Horan is a genius.

Further evidence of which I hear is a thirty minute 'game' without the ball at one of the recent Mayo training sessions. Now if he can only persuade the opposition to do the same

that reminds me of a  Larry Finnerty story .  They were catching an imaginary ball in a training  when larry leave they field to go to the changing room the boys ask him were he is off to to which he replies" getting my gloves i can't catch the ball it's slipping through my hands with all the rain its made "