Sligeach v Maigh Eo. 5ú Meitheamh 2010

[ballinaman]

Redgreenery - I found it hard to take your post seriously after you mentioned Conor Mort as captain.
Yes we were beaten by a good team but a shite team would have also beaten us by the sounds of it.
JOM and the way things have gone has drained the confidence out of Mayo supporters like never before.
Few wins against Carlow and Longford will only paper over the deep caverns at this stage, gone well beyond cracks. It's all well and good backing the team, which we all obviously will forever but you can't just bury your head in the sand and fail to acknowledge the current situation.

In fairness to Sligo, they are a fine team and have been building nicely. But Sligo supporters will need to take stock of what they beat on Saturday. In the words of Joe Brollox...."sure everyone beats Mayo"

[Redgreenery]

Redgreenery - I found it hard to take your post seriously after you mentioned Conor Mort as captain.
Yes we were beaten by a good team but a shite team would have also beaten us by the sounds of it.
JOM and the way things have gone has drained the confidence out of Mayo supporters like never before.
Few wins against Carlow and Longford will only paper over the deep caverns at this stage, gone well beyond cracks. It's all well and good backing the team, which we all obviously will forever but you can't just bury your head in the sand and fail to acknowledge the current situation.

In fairness to Sligo, they are a fine team and have been building nicely. But Sligo supporters will need to take stock of what they beat on Sunday. In the words of Joe Brollox...."sure everyone beats Mayo"

O dont get me wrong I think a change in management is badly needed, especially if we do lose to a bad team in the qualifiers, completely agree with that! What gets to me is that the season is not over, yet all the folk are talking as if it is!! We are still in the championship!
And yes the dissappointments of late have gotten to me too and I can see why the support at the games has been down as of late! I just think the lack of support is a cause for the lack of motivation on the field we have seen on the last 2 day's out!

[ballinaman]

Redgreenery - I found it hard to take your post seriously after you mentioned Conor Mort as captain.
Yes we were beaten by a good team but a shite team would have also beaten us by the sounds of it.
JOM and the way things have gone has drained the confidence out of Mayo supporters like never before.
Few wins against Carlow and Longford will only paper over the deep caverns at this stage, gone well beyond cracks. It's all well and good backing the team, which we all obviously will forever but you can't just bury your head in the sand and fail to acknowledge the current situation.

In fairness to Sligo, they are a fine team and have been building nicely. But Sligo supporters will need to take stock of what they beat on Sunday. In the words of Joe Brollox...."sure everyone beats Mayo"

O dont get me wrong I think a change in management is badly needed, especially if we do lose to a bad team in the qualifiers, completely agree with that! What gets to me is that the season is not over, yet all the folk are talking as if it is!! We are still in the championship!
And yes the dissappointments of late have gotten to me too and I can see why the support at the games has been down as of late! I just think the lack of support is a cause for the lack of motivation on the field we have seen on the last 2 day's out!

It's very hard to believe in a team that has showed on a few occasions that they don't believe in themselves, and thats down to management IMO. The players put in serious effort and give up so much for Mayo so people shouldn't forget that. The least the deserve is to be steered in the right direction. Maybe they have become disillusioned with the whole set up too and hence the lack of hunger.
We're not out of the championship technically alright, but we are psychologically...jaysus,were we ever even in it going by Saturdays performance??

[Never beat the deeler]

Wow. It's taken me until now to be able to come on here and read the comments.

I will leave any comments on the Mayo players and management until I have something constructive to say, and will attempt that on the Mayo football discussion thread.

For now, it should rightly be all about Sligo, an excellent performance. I hope ye go on to beat Galway, but take a step back from Saturday's performance before the Galway game. Ye would do well to forget it ever happened, and prepare for the Galway game the same as the Mayo one.

Congrats.

[ross matt]

Congrats to Sligo. Think some of the praise dished out to them in the media over the last few days has been a tad patronising. It's true to say they showed guts and heart but the main factors in their win were good organisation and intelligent football. Credit for that has to go to Kevin Walsh.  They were even better than the scoreline suggests. McGarrity should have walked and the ref pulled Sligo up for  what alot of the time was just basicically tough tackling.

Mayo had no heart, hunger or desire to win the dirty ball. Morale looked very poor thoughout the team. The selection of the likes of Padden etc was strange. Has the collapse in the league final caused this? Is there more to it? Dunno but difficult to see them having the appetite for the long road that is the back door now.

As an overall unit I feel Sligo are a better side than Galway. The open spaces of Pearse stadium wont faze them as they have the pace to exploit it and the work rate to track back when required. If they break even or win midfield they should win it. However Galway still have exceptional inside forwards like P. Joyce and Meehan plus lesser ones that are capable of taking scores such as N. Joyce and Armstrong. Therefore Sligo will really have to disrupt the supply and punish on the break like they did versus Mayo. It's a 50/50 game. 2007 will stand to Sligo in terms of confidence and experience.

[SLIGONIAN]

Out of a total attendance of 13 something I would say less that 5,000 anyway. Quietest welcome for a Mayo team onto a championship I ever recall. The players performance reflected the lack of enthusiasm. at no stage did the crowd even attempt to get behind the team. Well this is what Johnno wanted after all. It s backfired big time. Once even middling Mayo team would respond to the crowd and try and kick on anyway.

Spot on as usual, moysider.
Something had been bugging me throughout the game-indeed, from the time I had arrived at the grounds until I finally arrived back home and read your post.
The lack of enthusiasm from Mayo supporters was unreal and it was more than met and matched by those on the field and on the sideline.
Maybe indeed Johnno has gone to the well too many times with his calls for patience and team rebuilding plans.
We'll regroup, we'll see where we are, we'll move on, said Johnno, according to An Spailpin.
If all three were undertaken as speedily as possible, with the 'on' possibly changed to 'out,' he might yet do his county some service.
Sligo were superb yesterday and highlighting Mayo's shortcomings can't take any deserved credit away from their achievement. They came out with a plan; Walsh tweaked it when needed and, in the end, they chased Mayo up the side of Ben Bulben.
I doubt that any team in the land would relish a meeting with Sligo this summer.
I'd nap them for the Connacht title and see no reason why they shouldn't go further. It's far too soon to start talking about Sam Maguire yet but I'm sure Walsh and his players know this full well. All the same, they are certainly live contenders and if they do go the whole way, I'd be delighted.
Can any of the Mayo heads here deny Sligonian his iconic status now?
He lives up to the motto to that John O'Mahony waffles about: "Keep the Faith." I had a number of pros and cons to consider before making up my mind to drive down from Dublin for the game.
But an opportunity to meet the person who epitomises all that is best in the GAA made me decide to make the journey. I'm glad I did. This man is larger than life in every sense; not least his unwavering devotion to and belief in his cause.
I hope he enjoyed his visit to Fiddler Creek last night and that it made up for the many other nights that didn't have a happy ending.
I won't be a bit put out if he gets a good run of happy endings between now and on to late September!

Cheers Lar, a pleasure meeting you, hopefully see you up in Croke Park later in the yr. I certainly wont write off mayo, ye are definitly better than that, but so are we. I have alot of respect for most of the mayo heads on here and can safely say no one will want to meet ye in qualifiers.

[stephenite]

Wow. It's taken me until now to be able to come on here and read the comments.

I will leave any comments on the Mayo players and management until I have something constructive to say, and will attempt that on the Mayo football discussion thread.

For now, it should rightly be all about Sligo, an excellent performance. I hope ye go on to beat Galway, but take a step back from Saturday's performance before the Galway game. Ye would do well to forget it ever happened, and prepare for the Galway game the same as the Mayo one.

Congrats.

I'd echo most of that - I doubt Galway would ever hit the field so unprepared under Big Joe and now that they've seen what Sligo can do they'll be even harder to turn over.

That said it was a magnificent performance by Sligo - just after watching it and there's no reason why ye can't kick on from it.

[highking]

If talk and hot air could win an Ireland, Mayo would win it every year. Forty-four pages of tripe talk on the first round of the Connacht Championship. We are so good at talking about it, that we have put forward a whole army of former players to talk about it on the National stage. They are roled out every weekend on the Sunday Game to talk, M Carney (very much so Marty), K McStay, D Brady, J Maughan, J O'Mahoney (before his current job - and straight away when Mayo get knocked out), and low and behold - Liam McHale arrives on the scene last weekend. We have nearly a 7-a-side team of All-Star talkers... If only it could win all Irelands....

[seafoid]

Kevin Walsh must be a good manager. He can take over from big Joe whenever the need arises . Nice to see Sligo beating Mayo. They might even beat Galway which wouldn't be a bad thing either. Imagine beating the big three to win Connacht. That would be some achievement.

Mayo fans shouldn't be too down. Galway lost to Ros in the first round in 2001 and ended  up beating them in the qfs and then going on to win the all-Ireland. It is still all to play for, surely.   

[Peter Solan the Great]

Time for me to eat humble pie also. Sligo were brilliant in the second half great passion and heart. Jesus if we only could bottle some of it and if they threw Eamon O'Hara to us as well. We lacked a leader like O'Hara. The lads out there didnt seem to care about the Jersey, that might seem a bit harsh but thats certainly what it looked liked.

Maybe its the drink from the bank holiday but i have the blues since the defeat. At this stage its hard to look forward to the qualifiers. Sligo will need to improve slightly to beat Galway they wasted a lot of scores and should of won by more but they have a brilliant manager in Walsh and plenty of time to work on it.

[seafoid]

well done Sligo but keep the heads Galway will be tough to beat in the final.

galway in the connacht semi final. Or did you mean the all-Ireland?

[galwayman]

Very impresed with Sligo - in the second half especially. I don't think I have ever seen Mayo as bad in Connacht (well maybe the 95 Connacht final in Tuam against Galway).
Galway - Sligo game is very tough to call. The only thing giving me a bit of extra hope is the fact that we are at home. If it were in Sligo I really doubt we would win. A huge thing going against us is that it's pretty certain now that Michael Meehan will not be fit to play any part in that game. We will need Army and the 2 Joyces to step up to the mark bigtime.
Am looking forward to it now. I'm sure the Sligo support will outnumber us 2:1 as usual. I hear the Mayo lads on about the lack of support in Sligo on Saturday. Try being a Galway follower who travels all over the country to see the team in action only to be outnumbered most of the time unless we reach an AI semi final!!

Anyway back to Sligo - they seem to be very strong around the middle and have a class act in the corner in David Kelly.We are weak in our fb line and could have a lot of trouble holding him.Fitzy is the only man for that job or possibly Alan Burke to use his pace.
I really feel that Meehan would do damage on Noel Maguire if he was fit so he is a massive loss to us.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Very impresed with Sligo - in the second half especially. I don't think I have ever seen Mayo as bad in Connacht (well maybe the 95 Connacht final in Tuam against Galway).
Galway - Sligo game is very tough to call. The only thing giving me a bit of extra hope is the fact that we are at home. If it were in Sligo I really doubt we would win. A huge thing going against us is that it's pretty certain now that Michael Meehan will not be fit to play any part in that game. We will need Army and the 2 Joyces to step up to the mark bigtime.

What happened to Meehan? Last I heard he was back in light training and that was a few weeks ago.

[galwayman]

Well I'm going on second hand info here but a buddy of mine was talking to MM a week or so ago and he said himself he was very doubtful that he'd be fit for the semi-final. He hasn't played any part in any of the challenges Galway have played recently or been able to tog for Caltra either. Game is less than 3 weeks away now. The worst thing they could do is rush him back from a knee injury.Could end up turning it into a cruciate injury by coming back too soon.

[mannix]

when o hara went back as a sweeper where did his own marker go?  did not see that as i was behind the goal with a 2 year old child on my shoulder pulling my hair and looking for icecream.