Mayo Ladies face one more must-win game to survive relegation

THE winds of change nearly sank Mayo’s Division 1 status at the weekend, but the rough seas have not abated.

Mayo, as you now know, are a different team to last year. Shorn of some their finest players, the green and red have endured their toughest league campaign in recent memory.

The facts don’t lie. This has been Mayo’s worst league campaign since 2011 when they dropped to Division 2 after seven defeats.

The win against Kildare was long overdue after a five-game losing streak. But it may have come too late.

Even if Mayo win on Saturday - a huge ask, as we’ll explain later - it may not be enough to save them from the drop.

To finish sixth, Mayo also need Kildare to beat Tyrone. There’s no telling what way that will go, given that they, too, are one defeat away from relegation.

Waterford, like Mayo, were once giants of the women’s game. But they are still a force to be reckoned with, make no mistake.

Their last dance with the green and red ended in a 2-9 2-6 defeat exactly a year ago yesterday (Monday).

That day in Ballina, goals from Fionnuala McLaughlin proved pivotal as Mayo outlasted a Waterford team that never went away.

Not only have they not gone away, Waterford are on the up. In 2024, they dodged the drop by finishing sixth in Division 1 with a -11 scoring difference. Twelve months later, they are the highest-scoring team in their division.

Their two most recent results illustrate the scale of the task facing Mayo this weekend - a 6-15 0-5 away win over Tyrone and a 1-22 1-12 victory over Armagh with eight different scorers.

Lauren McGregor, who struck two goals against Mayo last year, has been in fine form, kicking 4-16 for the Déise. Second to her on the scoring charts is Kellyann Hogan, who’s kicked 1-21.

The bulk of Mayo’s scores this year have come from one player: Sinéad Walsh. Saturday’s dance of death with Kildare was no different, with Walsh shooting 2-4 of Mayo’s 3-4 tally. Mayo have kicked 9-42 in total in this league campaign, 7-21 of which has come from Sinéad Walsh.

Such has been the lack of covering fire afforded to Walsh that defenders Saoirse Lally and Danielle Caldwell have started bombing forward á la Paddy Durcan to boost the Mayo attack.

With the form McGregor and Hogan are in, Lally and Caldwell will be best served minding the house so Waterford don’t burn it down, particularly with the experienced Kathryn Sullivan still sidelined.

Mayo full-back Nicola O’Malley is set to return to the starting team after missing the Kildare game through illness.

However, even considering that third-place Waterford may field a slightly weaker team, Mayo are still very much the underdog.

With one training session between today (Tuesday) and Saturday’s four-hour trip to the south-east, Liam McHale remained upbeat about Mayo’s prospects.

“We should play with a little bit more panache and a little bit more freedom,” McHale said after the win over Kildare.

“Hopefully we can go up and put in a performance. We plan to put in a performance and we know if we play well we have a great chance of beating Waterford for sure.”

Will Mayo’s eternal optimist be proven correct?

FIXTURE

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 1

WATERFORD V MAYO

SATURDAY, MARCH 28

KILMACTHOMAS AT 2.30 PM