Oscar Traynor hopes on the line for Mayo League
Mayo League manager Alan Henry is confident his side can get a big result against Galway League. Picture: INPHO
Whether the Mayo League’s involvement in the FAI Oscar Traynor Cup extends after the Christmas break is on the line this Sunday as they travel to Eamon Deacy Park to take on Galway League.
Disappointment was the overriding feeling from Mayo’s perspective as Sligo/Leitrim equalised in the second half to secure a share of the spoils, with Mayo forward Jordan Loftus also seeing a penalty saved in the second half.
The result, coupled with Galway’s win over Roscommon & District League, appears to put more pressure on Mayo for the win, but Mayo manager Alan Henry believes that, whether they beat Sligo/Leitrim or not, Galway was always a game that would require a win.
“We had good spells in the first half, and then the second half it wasn't there and that sort of thing. For whatever reason, I'm not quite sure,” Henry told the as he reflected on the Mayo performance.
“We had a good few chances as well and half chances to go and put the game to bed and we didn't do it. Just didn't finish on the day.
“People can talk about the penalty miss, this, that and the other, but it wasn't just that that cost us the game.
“You've got to take it on the chin, and you take the point, and you move on to the next game. That's just the way it is.” Henry added: “For us to come out of the Connacht phase we would have had to go and win in Galway anyway, so nothing has changed in that sense.
“The lads have got their head around that fairly quickly although they were disappointed for a week but they're up and they're at it and nothing's really changed.” How the squad will look for this Sunday is the great unknown for the Mayo management team as they sweat of the fitness of a number of players following the third round of the Connacht Cup.
Castlebar Celtic quartet Jordan Loftus, Brian Walsh, Ioseph O’Reilly and Johnny Cocozza, along with Manulla’s Darragh Byrne and Ballina Town’s Oisin Tighe, are doubts for the game. Celtic goalkeeper Stefan Hester, Ballina Town defender Chris Maughan and Conn Rangers attacker Sam Barnes are all long-term absentees.
“It's been a bad weekend for us,” admits Henry. “We won't know until probably next Wednesday or Thursday. That's disappointing, but that's football you know, and you pick up knocks but to get six in one weekend was a bit of a disaster to be honest.
“I'm hoping that we'll have two or three of them back and there could be two or three that won't make it. That's the reality of it.
“We have a few lads that come in and out on standby and they're training with us. Some lads misfortune or injury is another lads opportunity and that's the way we look at it. We still have to be positive and move on.” As Henry said, the Galway game is the big one and it is a squad brimming with quality. Largely made up of players from Maree-Oranmore, Salthill Devon, Moyne Villa, Colga and Mervue United, clubs that have reached the latter stages of the Connacht Cup in recent years, with names such as former Galway United players Padraic Cunningham, Timmy Molloy, Enda Curran and Aidan Coyle well-known in soccer circles.
There will also be a very familiar name in Cathal Coyne, the former Castlebar Celtic defender who transferred to Salthill Devon earlier this year and was part of the Mayo Oscar Traynor squad last year.
“He might have a job to give his Galway teammates any info because I don't know what squad we'll have, never mind Coyne!” joked Henry. “It'll be interesting for him to come up against his old teammates and stuff like that as well and vice versa for our lads.
Yet despite the challenges, the Mayo manager remains optimistic that they can get a big result in the city.
“They had a good win over Roscommon in the end. I know they were a couple of goals down, but you see that Galway team, it's a quality side they have.
“We knew how the goals came about that they conceded, which is important for us to plan. And we also know how they scored their goals and changed shape and put two up top in Podge [Cunningham] and Enda Curran, and they're a right handful.
“They were probably favourites from the very start to come out of Connacht, and maybe rightly so. But we have our own bit of belief in the squad, and we'll go and have a right cut. If we get the levels of performance that we expect or could get or should get, I’ve no reason to believe that we can't go there and win the game.”
