Mayo FC make further signings in advance of League of Ireland bow
Mayo FC club doctor Lisa Cunningham with League of Ireland executive Andrew McGouran during his visit to the club’s recent AMS Heart Screening Clinic attended by players, parents and staff. The screening of Mayo FC ‘s academy players is an important initiative that helps ensure the health and wellbeing of the players, with Dr Lisa pointing out that early detection saves lives
The chairman of Mayo FC has said he expects the squad being built ahead of the team’s entry to the FAI National League will be competitive and competing at the upper end of the new third tier.
At a launch night last Tuesday for the Mayo FC Club Members Draw, chairman Joe Faughnan confirmed the club had signed Darragh Forde from The Neale and Conor Gorman from Ballina, both formerly of Sligo Rovers. The latter, Faughnan said, rejected an offer from Sligo Rovers to join Mayo FC’s senior men’s squad.
This is in addition to the already announced signings of Ben Edeh, Aidan Coyle, Gary Armstrong and Sean McAteer, with the club expected to announce seven further additions in the coming days to bring the total squad number to 13. The chairman said three of the additional signings are joining from clubs playing in the Elverys Sports Super League in Mayo and a further three are joining from League of Ireland clubs.
“There is some big names, one or two would be the biggest names in the Super League and one or two would be among the bigger names in Mayo soccer currently playing outside Mayo,” he said.
“We had one or two loan bids for Sligo players rejected. Sligo are in a battle themselves in the Premier Division at the moment and they didn’t want to leave themselves tight but the main aim for us was to get as many Mayo lads back playing in the county.” He said the manager Anthony O’Neill will soon have an assistant manager on board.
“The player assessments have gone well over the last few weeks and there is another assessment before the end of the week. Anthony has a few decisions to make on three or four players but we’re building in the right direction towards August and quite confident we’ll have a good team for the third tier.
“Anthony has had a good ten days and he’ll be announcing an assistant manager as well in the coming days. He has Micheál Schlingermann in the backroom team, a top-quality goalkeeping coach. We’re quietly very happy with the squad being assembled.”
Faughnan said he could not say whether or not there had been discussions with Schlingermann regarding a player/coach role within Mayo FC. Schlingermann, a native of Kiltimagh, played in goal for Sligo Rovers, Athlone Town, Monaghan United, Drogheda United and Galway United in the League of Ireland.
The 35-year-old also represented Mayo in GAA, starting in goal for the minor team against Armagh in the 2009 All-Ireland Final and was also part of the 2019 National Football League winning panel.
“I cannot say if that conversation has taken place because I don’t know what Anthony is planning but it isn’t a bad idea. I don’t see why he couldn’t play at that level,” he said.
Faughnan said he expects Mayo FC to compete at a high-level when the season kicks off in August.
“I think they’ll be really competitive. We don’t know what other teams are doing but I think we’ll have a top, top, top side, a really good team,” he said.
“It will surprise people how strong we will be compared to what could have happened. We could have had a whole Super League team but this team now, the Oscar Traynor team would find it hard to handle this Mayo FC team.”
He said the club is building beyond the truncated season with a view towards the 2027 season, which would introduce promotion and relegation arrangements.
“The be all and end all will be next season when we get into a full proper season. We’re not going to lose any sleep if we lost a semi-final or final in the truncated season but next year, there will be promotion up for grabs,” he said.
