Mayo U-20s face Sligo challenge to guarantee Connacht final spot

They’ve won three from three, but even that isn’t enough to guarantee the Mayo U-20s a place in their first Connacht final since 2021.

Only the top-placed team in the five-team round-robin group will book their place in the final. The second- and third-placed teams will play a semi-final to determine the other half of the decider. 

As it stands, Peadar Gardiner’s Mayo are top of the table as the only undefeated team in the competition. It cannot go unremarked upon that this is a huge improvement on last year’s campaign, which saw Mayo finish bottom of the group after a win over Galway, a draw against Roscommon and defeats to Sligo and Leitrim. 

READ: Three Mayo U-20 footballers who caught our eye against Leitrim

They saw off Roscommon by five in the first round despite kicking over a dozen wides. They then beat a Galway side stacked with All-Ireland winners in a sizzler in Tuam Stadium before walloping Leitrim in MacHale Park the week before last. 

So Mayo are pretty well set up against the Yeats men. Darragh Beirne, Rio Mortimer and Diarmuid Duffy have assimilated back into the squad seamlessly in recent games. No mean feat, considering the wealth of talent at Mayo’s disposal. 

Tom Lydon has been the star of the show, kicking 2-21 in three games, while Niall Hurley has also been on fire, kicking twelve points between full-forward and centre-forward. They are joined in the full-forward line for tomorrow’s game alongside Beirne, who is rewarded with a start after kicking 2-2 of the bench as Mayo sauntered to victory against Leitrim. Colm Lynch of Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin also starts in the half-forward line.

Though not as formidable against Leitrim as they were in the first two rounds, Oliver Armstrong and Séamus Howard are a top midfield pairing in front of two fine half-backs in John MacMonagle and Hugh O’Loughlin. 

Sligo have been a real mixed bag. They took Galway’s scalp by a point in Markievicz Park but got a nine-point beating from Roscommon in round two. The men in black struck 5-17 against Leitrim but conceded 2-22 - a worrying statistic, even in the era of new rules. 

Though it’s of no real significance to Wednesday’s game, Sligo have also been a bogey team for Mayo at U-20 level recently, beating them three times since the 2022 Connacht final - the year Mayo last got to the U-20 provincial decider.

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Paul Henry’s team boast some veterans from last year’s 0-15 to 0-9 win over Mayo in MacHale Park, including Daire Callaghan, Connor Flynn and Ronan Niland. Eleven of that squad are now overage, while Mayo can call upon seven of the team that started last year’s defeat to Sligo. 

Mayo have more than enough to get the job done and book their place in the provincial final.

FIXTURE 

CONNACHT U-20 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4

MAYO V SLIGO 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

TUBBERCURRY AT 6.30PM