Durcan fit for trip to Sligo

ON THE MOVE Castlebar's Paddy Durcan evades Ballintubber's Michael Plunkett during the Mayo SFC semi-final. Pic: Michael Donnelly

Daniel Carey

MAYO defender Paddy Durcan is confident he’ll be fit for Castlebar Mitchels’ Connacht Championship quarter-final against Tourlestrane in Markievicz Park, Sligo next Saturday (throw-in at 2pm). The wing back went off after 46 minutes of last Saturday’s county final against Knockmore.
“My hamstring feels a bit tight,” he admitted afterwards. “But look, I should be ... I’ll be good to go for 70 minutes, hopefully. I’ll be good to go.”
The All Star nominee picked up the man of the match award after scoring 1-3 from play.
His haul included a sensational goal, the first of Castlebar’s three, following a series of one-twos with Niall Lydon. Mitchels eventually won the game by 3-13 to 0-10. The 12-point victory came despite a tit-for-tat beginning to the game.
“It was difficult in the first half against the breeze,” said Durcan. “That was a tough breeze. So we were happy [to be] 6-4 up [at half-time], but we knew we’d a lot more in us. I think [in the] second half, we stepped it up a good lot, and the lads at the back did very well. To keep any team to ten points, we’re delighted with that.”
Tourlestrane managers Eamonn O’Hara and Gerry McGowan were in MacHale Park for both the Mayo semi-finals and final.
Mitchels joint manager Declan O’Reilly said Castlebar would treat their Sligo opponents ‘with the utmost respect’, but acknowledged in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s win that he knew ‘very little’ of the team they would be facing.
The Mayo champs set about putting that right as early as last Sunday, though O’Reilly stressed it was important to ‘enjoy this moment’ and celebrate Castlebar’s first back-to-back victory since 1970.
“We’ve got to get the bodies right fairly quick,” said Durcan. “It’s going to be a quick turnaround to next Saturday. I’m really looking forward to getting going again, and we’ve got to perform.”