New Yorkers earn Mayo’s respect

By Ivan Neill

CASTLEBAR, Co. Mayo — Political leaders in County Mayo, located along the West Coast of Ireland, will host an official welcome reception for New York senior footballers Thursday night, ahead of next Saturday’s Connacht senior football championship clash at McHale Park, Castlebar.

Mayo senior footballers won’t be as generous Saturday evening in a game that has generated a lot of interest in Ireland.

The Mayo team will, of course, form a guard of honor for their opponents as they emerge from the dressing room, but friendships will be put on the shelf until after the game.

When New York were admitted to the championship last fall and a first-round clash with Mayo established, no one in the thirty-two counties of Ireland gave the New Yorkers an earthly chance of surviving beyond the first 70-minute game.

However, opinions have changed somewhat over the winter months and Mayo supporters — disappointed with their footballing heroes’ drop in form — are facing the game with more hope than confidence.

Mayo’s 10,000 loyal followers had their worst fears confirmed in two championship warm-up games against Fermanagh and Dublin in the last two weeks.

In both games, Mayo failed to impress and the players themselves know that they must improve by at least 50 percent if they are to buckle the Big Apple’s hopes of causing a major shock result.

There are those who firmly believe that the biggest upset in the All-Ireland championship for many a long year is on the cards.

Defeat, though, is not in the Mayo players’ vocabulary and, while they hold the greatest respect for the tourists’ footballing ability, they expect to get through by a comfortable margin.

The Mayo players know they are on a hiding-to-nothing even in a winning situation.

“If we win by 10 to 15 points, the so-called experts will say we beat a team who wouldn’t bust a paper bag, while a 2- or 3-points win will class us as a team with no future,” one player said.

We are on a no-win situation no matter what happens, added another Mayo player.

A spate of injuries, however, could leave the favorites without some of their regular performers, particularly midfielder Pat Fallon and free-taker Maurice Sheridan, who was mainly responsible in Mayo qualifying for successive All-Ireland finals in 1996 and 1997, against Meath and Kerry.

James Nallen, Kenneth Mortimer and Brian Maloney have all shaken off injuries and will be in the starting lineup.

Although Mayo team manager John Maughan had spies operating in New York gathering all the information, strengths and weaknesses, on the local team, Mayo supporters are still in the dark of what to expect from the Yanks.

Mayo defender Fergal Costello was a member of the Irish Army team that played New York in Gaelic Park six weeks ago and was able to inform team boss Maughan on his return of the capabilities of the New Yorkers.

The Mayo team boss is approaching the New York game with the utmost caution. He even had his spies at a challenge game between New York and County Clare on Saturday evening — 10 hours after the New York players touched down at Shannon Airport.

Mayo should have a big advantage over the Yanks in that McHale Park in Castlebar is a full-sized playing pitch, something the New York players will likely find difficult to come to terms with.

While Mayo’s form in recent games has not been encouraging, the home county’s greater experience gained from two All-Ireland final appearances should be sufficient to see New York return among the skyscrapers with their championship hopes in tatters.

(Ivan Neill covers GAA for the Western People newspaper of Ballina, Co. Mayo.)