Galway’s rising stars strive to confirm superiority over Mayo

THE first of three crunch head-to-heads with the ‘old enemy’ throws-in at Tuam Stadium this Friday (7.30pm) when the Galway minor footballers take on Mayo in the Connacht final.

Like the county’s flagship men’s and women’s teams who play Mayo in Limerick on Saturday, it shouldn’t be too difficult for Galway to be ‘up for it’ when the green and red of Mayo roll into town.

Though it’s not knockout – both sides have already qualified for the All-Ireland series – there is provincial silverware at stake, bragging rights over rival counties, and importantly, in theory at least, an ‘easier’ opponent in the quarter-final. The winners here will face the losers of the Leinster final between Dublin and Kildare; and vice versa. Those games are pencilled in for Saturday, July 27, at Croke Park.

Galway’s record in the league formatted Connacht championship is better than Mayo’s. They won three of their four matches, losing only to Roscommon. Mayo hammered Roscommon the following week, (4-14 to 0-5), but were beaten twice, by Galway and Sligo.

Mayo obviously gained revenge on the Yeats County when they met again in the semi-final, a game that will give them quite a bit of confidence as they look to turn the tables again on Galway.

Mayo have lively forwards who can do damage if they cut loose – they bagged four goals against Roscommon and five the last day against Sligo, four of them coming from dangerman Paul Walsh.

Galway’s forwards cut a dash in completely dismantling Leitrim a fortnight ago in Tuam, too, but, no disrespect to the opposition, they were appalling.

The margin of victory, 5-25 to 1-4, was a true reflection of the gulf between the sides, and it didn’t do the Tribesmen any favours in terms of what lies ahead of them this coming Friday. The teenagers in maroon and white certainly won’t be getting carried away with themselves based on the clipping they gave Leitrim.

Galway have had far tougher challenge games and training sessions than what they faced against Leitrim, although in fairness, the lads who came off the bench in the second half when the game was well won didn’t let-up, pushed it home, and will be pushing for starting places against Mayo.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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