AND there we were thinking that the stars were aligning for an historic All-Ireland senior football final between Connacht Goliaths Galway and Mayo in late July.

Instead, one of them will be packings their kit bags before the championship even reaches the quarter-finals after Sunday’s crunch showdown at Pearse Stadium (3pm)

It’s not where either team expected or wanted to be ahead of last weekend’s final round of group matches in the All-Ireland series. An injury-hit Galway were nailed on the line by a committed Armagh in Carrick-on-Shannon, while Mayo frittered away a six-point lead against resurgent Cork at the Gaelic Grounds.

Both camps will struggle to take positives from their respective losses, but Mayo’s was the worse of the two. After substitute Tommy Conroy blasted to the net in the 56th minute, Kevin McStay’s team were 1-11 to 0-8 in front, and in control.

Inexplicably, however, they failed to score again as the Rebels rattled off an unanswered 1-6 to demote Mayo to third place in the group – an unthinkable scenario after their barnstorming victory over Kerry in Killarney in the first round.

McStay tried to put a brave face on their capitulation. “We just have to put the head down and crack on. It’s not where we wanted to be but let’s see what we’re made of now.”

The Mayo management didn’t include the county’s long serving and record scorer Ciillian O’Connor on their match-day squad against Cork as it was felt he wasn’t “sharp enough”, but, given the high stakes on Sunday, the Ballintubber clubman is sure to feature in their plans for Salthill.

Apart from Conroy’s contribution from the bench and a four-point haul from the in-form Jordan Flynn, Mayo’s attack struggled to punch holes in a well-marshalled and disciplined Cork defence, although Aidan O’Shea did spurn a glorious goal chance in the opening half.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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