High stakes as Mayo battle Leitrim to avoid relegation drop

Mayo face into a hugely important game on Saturday afternoon in Tubbercurry. Victory will salvage their season and retain their spot in the senior championship next year, while defeat will leave them staring into the abyss.

There is very little doubt that the final-day group stage loss to Cork left a bitter taste in Mayo mouths a few weeks ago.

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In the dying moments, when Clodagh Keane reached into the heavens as she so often does and flicked the ball to the net to seemingly secure a draw, elation was palpable. That result would have sent Liam McHale’s women into the quarter-finals, but the elation was brief.

The decision of referee Gus Chapman to chalk off what seemed a perfectly legitimate three-pointer was as controversial as it was heartbreaking.

However, one can only ruminate for so long, especially with a game of Saturday’s magnitude looming on the horizon.

Both Mayo and Leitrim will make the journey to Tubbercurry on Saturday afternoon knowing that, should they lose, they will be sailing perilously close to the wind.

Neither side has had a great season. They know that. But if they can’t get one more win under their belts to round off 2025, it will go from bad to catastrophic.

Leitrim have some pedigree in their ranks, and impressed when winning last year’s intermediate title, but they’ve found the step up to mixing it with the big guns a bit of a challenge.

That said, their most notable performance in championship fare actually came when they took on Liam McHale’s side in the Connacht Championship.

It seemed like Mayo were home and hosed at one stage on a monstrously windy day in Swinford, but Muireann Devaney spearheaded what was almost a miraculous comeback for the O’Rourke County.

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In fact, had they been more clinical and not kicked 14 wides, they could have caused a shock and defeated the Green and Red on home soil.

Such a near-miss wasn’t appreciated by captain Danielle Caldwell.

“Certain aspects of our play we wouldn’t be too happy with, but we’ll just bring that to training Wednesday and try and learn and grow again,” she stated after that game.

It is doubtful that many in the Mayo camp would’ve been happy with the way they allowed their April 27 opponents to close the daylight on that occasion.

That said, there has been an upward curve in performances since then for McHale’s squad.

Metres of newspaper inches have been dedicated to the prowess of Mayo attacker Sinead Walsh, but now there seem to be some green shoots forming alongside her.

Ava McDonnell is one who has shown promise, tagging on scores in most of her games since her championship debut this season.

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Clodagh Keane has proven a nightmare for full-backs, while Sherin El Massry and Aoife Geraghty both raised white flags as Mayo came within inches of sparing themselves from the odious nature of this clash in the first place.

Let’s not mess around. Contributions like that to supplement Walsh’s wizardry on the scoreboard have been few and far between.

However, if those around her can get to the pitch of things just this once, then they’ll be able to take care of their own fate.

VERDICT: MAYO