Hurlers to enjoy a weekend breather ahead of crunch Wicklow showdown

Whether he’d have been so accommodating had his team been beaten last Sunday, who’s to know. But in the aftermath of victory over Armagh, Mayo manager Ray Larkin told his players they could have need weekend off. I’m sure he won’t want them to enjoy the St Patrick’s Weekend festivities too much, and he certainly has a couple of hard sessions (of the training ground variety!) in mind for them before and after, but the mood is good as Mayo inch closer to Division 2 hurling for 2026.

They are Division 3’s highest scorers to date and only table toppers London have conceded less. And avoid defeat to Wicklow on Saturday week, then not only will they have accomplished that mission of promotion, but they will have secured a place in the Division 3 final against the Exiles. They were beaten by them in late February but have since posted 19 and 9 points wins against Roscommon and Armagh to sit second in the table, behind London and two ahead of Wicklow, with one round of games left to play.

However, should Mayo lose in Aughrim to the Garden County, then promotion and a league final spot will be snatched from them in one foul swoop, owing to the head-to-head rule.

“Our priority now is to get lads back on the field,” Ray Larkin said after his side’s 3-21 to 1-18 win in Armagh.

And that’s what’s been impressive about Mayo of late; churning out results in the absence of players who, when fit, could be considered first team regulars. None of Sean Kenny, Eoghan Collins, Daniel Huane, Eoin Delaney or Jason Coyne started on Sunday, while James Lyons and Luke Hurley are also carrying injuries, but encouragingly, Ray Larkin is hopeful that most, if not all, of those players will be available for selection for the showdown with Wicklow. Indeed Kenny and Collins were both sprung from the bench in the second-half at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, where Mayo scored overturned a one point deficit in the 61st minute to emerge as convincing winners in the end.

“It’s the sign of a good team, when we had to dig it out [we did],” said Larkin.

“You’re coming into their backyard and they’re struggling, they had to get a win to survive and not go down with Sligo, so we knew coming up that it was going to be hard. We played well in spots, some of it was poor, but near the end we had the legs and just pushed on.

“The lads coming in made a big difference and that’s exactly what it is, it’s a whole panel thing. When you come in you have to make an impact and an impression because it’s going to be a hard team to pick,” he predicted.

Mayo, who had travelled to Armagh the night before, had 1-5 on the board inside seven minutes of the throw-in last Sunday but it took them until the 54th minute to double that score. By the 58th minute, they had fallen one point behind their hosts and a shock defeat was looking more and more of a possibility.

“It was like some of our lads just flicked a switch at that stage,” suggested Ray Larkin. “Liam Lavin was man-of-the-match for me, he was putting points over from all angles. We got a fluke goal but they all count.

“We thought coming up that we might be a bit leggy starting off but it was the opposite way, we started really well. Then I think a bit of complacency got into our heads and Armagh bullied us around a small bit.

“They really crowded out their full-back and half-back lines, put us under awful pressure. We didn’t get an awful lot off the referee either, I thought there were some strange decisions. But at the end of the day, we got the result, we got the two points and we’ll go home happy,” he concluded.