MulhollandÕs sights turn to Mayo as tough league campaign ends

Date Published: 08-Apr-2013

 Frank Farragher

IN the end, it was something of an anti-climax to the weekend for Alan Mulholland as Galway footballers were pretty much outgunned by Armagh in the Athletic Grounds on Sunday.

The previous evening in Roscommon he was on the line to see the county’s under-21s, pull off a remarkable Connacht final success against the home side after extra-time, but the perfect weekend was not to be in store for him.

Ironically, Fionntáin Ó Curraoin’s involvement with the under-21s meant that the Micheál Breathnach’s player had to be ruled out of the Armagh match, and how Galway would have needed a big midfield man to cope with the aerial power of Armagh’s James Lavery and Stephen Harold.

“We had toyed with the idea of bringing Fionntáin up North but after the extra-time on Saturday evening against Roscommon, it really wouldn’t have been fair to him.

“With Niall Coleman also ruled out through injury, it meant that our options were reduced in this sector but the lads who stepped in did try very hard against very strong opposition,” said the Galway manager.

Seven games on from the first Sunday in February, Mulholland will look back on the 2013 league campaign with mixed feelings — Galway did manage to secure a mid-table position but there was a lot of inconsistency along the way.

“We retained our position in Division Two and that’s good. Over the course the league we did put together some good passage of football, but we just haven’t been consistent enough.

“Coming up here today, we probably knew that promotion wasn’t really going to happen regardless of how we did, but we would certainly have liked to have put two wins back to back. As it turned out, we just weren’t strong enough on the day,” said Mulholland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.