Mayo face Monaghan with a tricky task ahead for Kevin McStay's men

The news that Paddy Durcan was returning to the Mayo team arrived on Friday night when Kevin McStay announced the team to face Monaghan later today.
The Castlebar man's return is a big boost for Mayo ahead of the upcoming trip to New York for the Connacht Championship quarter-final and his form will be watched with great interest today.
Nevertheless Mayo have a tricky task at hand in Clones. Travelling to Monaghan for the last league match of the season knowing they're in no-man's-land leaves Mayo in an unusual situation and calls for smart management because technically there still is a very slim chance that the reigning champions could qualify for the next week's final.
However, with last year's experience in mind, the Mayo men may not be too keen to appear in the final again. Winning the league turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing last season as the Green and Red didn't get a week off after winning the trophy. The subsequent championship result against Roscommon is well known.
Taking this year's league matches into consideration, there are plenty of things to talk about after six outings which saw positives such as a home win over Dublin and an opening day victory in Salthill, but these were balanced by negatives like the disappointing defeat in Tyrone.
After last week's defeat to Derry, The Mayo News columnist Billy Joe Padden said Mayo's struggles on their own kick-outs was worrying. Padden also highlighted that the Mayo forwards have been struggling to find their form as an efficient attacking unit, and of course, Diarmuid O'Connor and Eoghan McLaughlin are still out due to injury.
Taking all things into account, today's match has only limited importance in the grand scheme of things especially with the trip to New York looming.
The big question which remains to be answered is – will any of the so-called fringe players force their way into McStay's thinking with the championship only two weeks away?