Filan relishing the London challenge as Mayo champions prepare for Connacht series

There’s a sense of excitement in Castlebar this week as the county champions prepare for their trip to London to take on Fulham Irish in Ruislip on Saturday. The squad and management won’t be the only ones making the trip, as a large band of travelling supporters are also planning to be there.

Speaking ahead of the game in London, Castlebar manager Kevin Filan told the local media that the group are looking forward to the occasion, but there’s a game to be won and it won’t be an easy task.

Filan has experience of going up against the champions of London on the pitch during his lengthy tenure in the Mitchels jersey.

“I remember being over there in 1993 when Mitchels won a county title here against Balla and then we went over and played Tir Conaill Gaels in London. Nothing is easy over there, we’re well aware of that, and we only won by three points back then, so we definitely won't be taking them for granted. But, we’re all looking forward to it, training's been great since the Garrymore game, and as a group we're really looking forward to the challenge it will pose. The most important thing is we get a performance and come out with a win and that's all we're thinking about at the moment.”

Going up against the London champions is somewhat of an unknown, but Filan and his management team have been busy studying the opposition and are aware of the test they’ll face in Ruislip.

“We've been doing a bit of research for the last while. We know they're a good team. We know their goalkeeper is the London county keeper. They've a corner-back that plays for London as well and they've lads from Galway that are good footballers. There was a lad here that played in the club, Matty McCormack, who played for St Kieran's who lost the final against them so we would have had a conversation with him. We'll have to have our wits about us to get the result because you can't underestimate the London clubs. They're getting stronger all the time. It's obviously due to the fact that there's more Irish lads going over for work and the teams are getting stronger, so we don't want to be the team that gets caught,” the team manager stated.

Mitchels selector and former player Shane Hopkins shared the views of his manager, as he discussed the challenge awaiting them on Saturday. “Once you step out of your county, the quality of opposition is always going to increase. So we're expecting a massive battle Saturday and it's all about us delivering a performance and seeing where that takes us.”

Excitement is building the club as a large number of supporters are scheduled to make the trip. Filan is delighted that the Red and Yellow will have a vocal following when the action gets underway in McGovern Park. “I think the club has done a fantastic job. Pretty much all the logistics are sorted now. I think a few hundred people are going to be travelling and that'll be great for us. There's a lot of expats over in London too, Castlebar people as well so yes, it's going to be a great journey, a great feeling for the supporters, more so than us at the moment. We'll hopefully be able to celebrate once the game is over. But for them, it's great to be going over, getting on a plane and supporting the club.”

The 32-time county champions enjoyed a five-point victory in the decider against Garrymore and Filan explains he only ever focuses on the task in hand. “We didn't really look past it, to be honest. I was on the pitch talking to the lads afterwards and I didn't really realise that if we beat Fulham Irish, we’d be in a Connacht final. So that's great. We know we have a piece of work to do. There's a lot of talk about St Brigid’s and Salthill Knocknacarra, and if we get by Fulham Irish we’ll think about them.

“They've got formidable panels and county players. But we won't fear anyone. We've a really good tradition when we come out of Mayo, that we give it a good lash. And that's what we're planning to do this year. We celebrated the county final, but our heads are screwed on since and we're very focused on what we need to do.”