The day Paul McGrath lined out against Mayo

International soccer legend, Paul McGrath, was part of the Leinster Senior League side that defeated Mayo, in the Oscar Traynor Cup Final, in 1981 – the only other time Mayo appeared in the final. After the game he joined St Patrick’s Athletic and later went on the star for Manchester United, Aston Villa and Ireland.

“I remember this big black fella playing at the back for Leinster,” Fergie McEllin, who played in the match, told The Mayo News. “He turned out to be Paul McGrath. Andy Reid’s father and uncle were in midfield, for them, too They were a good team.”

Fergie said Mayo wanted the match played in the county, but the FAI wouldn’t have it. “There was no wall on the far side of Celtic Park, and that was a problem for the FAI,” the Castlebar Celtic midfielder said. “There was something else wrong with Westport. But when we got to Dublin, these requirements didn’t seem to be an issue at all. There was no enclosure around the ground and the ball was going into the back gardens of houses in Kimmage and Terenure. We had to go through the dressing rooms to get to the pitch and they wouldn’t let the wives and girlfriends through.”

Charlie Davis, who played in the middle for Mayo on the day, (and played for Barcastle at the time,) said that he heard the sponsors, Waterford Crystal, wanted the match played in Dublin and that was why it wasn’t played in Mayo. Charlie had a shot over the bar on the day, and said Mayo had few chances.

“They were better than us,” he said, “and we didn’t play all that well on the day, either.”

Davis said that Mayo manager, Donal Benson, brought a new professionalism to the Mayo set-up that season.

“He held trials,” he said, “which was a first. Lads from outside the “Big Three” clubs of the time, Ballina Town, Castlebar Celtic and Westport United, came in. We were brought for meals after matches and were given team tracksuits. We went to Dublin the day before the match and stayed in a hotel. It was all a big step-up.”

One of the lads brought in from outside the “Big Three,” was Joe Lindsay, a tricky forward who played with Shraigh United, at the time. His goal in extra time of the quarter final had disposed of Clare, though he was injured for the semi-final against the North-Eastern Counties League.

“I had a shot rebound from the bottom of the post, in the final,” he told The Mayo News. “That was the nearest I got,” Lindsay said.

“Paul McGrath was the standout player. You knew to look at him he was on a different level,” he said. “He was big and strong and very calm. Even then, he was a great reader of the game. We got nothing out of him.”

Fergie McEllin (who had played junior football for Ireland the year before) went on to play for Castlebar Celtic for another ten years. Charlie Davis joined Castlebar Celtic from Barcastle. Joe Lindsay played GAA for Kiltane and Mayo for many years. Paul McGrath’s career went a different direction. He didn’t join Castlebar Celtic or play GAA for Mayo. I wonder if he regrets it, now.