Lahardane to contest Connacht final in MacHale Park

CONNACHT GAA have confirmed that Lahardane will play the Connacht Junior Football Championship Final in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

The reigning Mayo junior champions will play Sligo's Owenmore Gaels at 1.30pm on Saturday, December 2 at the Castlebar venue. The final will be refereed by Christopher Ryan from Galway.

Eddie Conroy's charges are through to their first provincial final since 2017 after a hard-fought win over Galway champions Menlough, which had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out after extra-time.

Mickey Murphy’s spot kick sealed a 5-3 win for the North Mayo men.

Speaking to the media following their win, Lahardane manager Eddie Conroy said his side were looking to 'put a bit of pride' back into Mayo football in the Connacht final. 

Lahardane are the last Mayo team remaining in the three provincial club championships after both Ballina Stephenites and Kilmeena lost out in the senior and intermediate semi-finals. 

"Hopefully we’ll put a bit of pride back and that’s what we’re trying to do. In Lahardane we’re all about pride. They are about pride and I put that pride into them hopefully," said Conroy.

"I’m proud person, I’m an honest person, they put their honesty out there today and that’s what I’m about myself is about honesty.

"As a fella who played with Mayo juniors and I played with Mayo masters, wearing that Mayo jersey there’s a pride in you. Every time you represent your county it's special. We’re representing the county now as the only team left in Connacht. We’re going to give it a bit of justice we’re going to give Mayo people something to be shouting about, hopefully all going well.

"We know how good the Sligo lads will be. Sligo are an upcoming county, they’ve very good players, they’ve won Connacht Under-20s and are competing at the top end for the last few years, so we’ll play the game the next day and see how it goes."

One of Lahardane's leading lights, half-back Aaron Murphy, was also taking nothing for granted after Sunday's win over Menlough.

"We’re in the final and anything can happen on them days," Murphy told The Mayo News.

"Again, we expect a tough battle and nothing less. We’ll regroup and we’ll get the recovery done and we’ll work hard in the next few weeks ahead of the final."