Connacht rivals to serve up some midweek magic

A fascinating climax to the group stage of the Connacht U20 Football Championship is in store this Wednesday evening, with all teams in contention for either a place in the final or semi-final.

The first four rounds of competition have shown all five counties to be incredibly evenly matched, with Roscommon the only unbeaten team yet still without a win, while no other side has lost more than one game.

The only guarantee at this stage is that Galway, at worse, will play a Connacht semi-final. The Tribesmen, on five points, top the table but have played all their games so can be leapfrogged by either of the three teams directly below them when Wednesday’s fifth round is played. Roscommon, Mayo and Leitrim all sit on three points with Sligo on two.

The top team in the group will qualify directly for the Connacht U20 final while the second and third-placed teams will contest a semi-final to see who joins them. Both those matches will be played in neutral venues.

But there’ll still be more football on offer for the fourth and fifth-placed teams as they will contest the Philly McGuinness Cup with the winners advancing to an All-Ireland U20 ‘B’ Championship.

The stage is set for an absolute epic conclusion to this round-robin series, with all sorts of permutations possible. For example, if two teams finish level on points, the result when they met will decide who finishes higher. If the two teams drew, scoring difference will apply.

There’s a strong chance however, that three teams could all finish on the same number of points; in that scenario results between those three teams, as opposed to scoring difference, will decide the placings.

There are several scenarios that could play out but for Mayo to reach the Connacht final directly, they would need to beat Sligo and hope that Roscommon and Leitrim draw, which would see the Green and Red pip Galway on the head-to-head rule. But if there’s a winner between Roscommon and Leitrim, a Mayo victory over Sligo would leave a three-way tie at the top of the table and then, in effect, a mini table would be created using just the results between those three teams to determine the final placings, as opposed to scoring difference which would have been the traditional method. That rule change was adopted at Congress 2023, however, if the new format still leaves teams level on points, scoring difference would then apply to separate them.

In short, Mayo are guaranteed to finish somewhere in the top three if they beat Sligo but anything less would likely see them headed for the ‘B’ competition.

The Yeats County, who are aiming to win a third consecutive Connacht U20 title, will need to pick up their first win to have any chance of contesting the semi-final while Roscommon could technically qualify without winning a single match but drawing a fourth straight match.

“In fairness to Connacht Council, or whoever came up with this format, isn’t this just the best thing that we’ve seen in a long time,” exclaimed Andy Moran after his Leitrim team’s draw with Sligo last Wednesday. The Mayo native was beaming even after watching his team surrender a six points lead to the home side.

“Four games for a county like Leitrim, in front of big crowds on a Wednesday evening in a great competition, it’s great for them lads,” said Moran who is also Leitrim’s senior manager.

“In two and a half weeks we’ve got promoted, got beat in a league final, we’ve beat Mayo, got beat in the championship, and now we’re down in Sligo drawing. I think it shows huge progress,” he declared.

Sligo kept their hopes of another title defence alive thanks to Luke Marren’s equalising penalty at the death. It was their second draw of the championship but nothing short of a victory over Mayo will suffice this week.

“That’s all we’ll be going there trying to do. If we don’t win we don’t go through, that’s as simple as it’s going to be for us,” says manager Paul Henry.

“It has to be a big effort, if it’s not we’re not going to be in the championship. That’s the task that is in front of these young lads now and we’ll see if they’re ready for it on Wednesday.

“I’ll never doubt the character of these lads because they’ll fight and fight for you,” Henry added.

Eirgrid Connacht U20 Football Championship Round 5 

Wednesday, April 17 

Mayo v Sligo, Castlebar (7pm, ref: James Molloy) 

Leitrim v Roscommon, Ballinamore (6.30pm, ref: Jerome Henry)