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Things needed to go right for Mayo yesterday both at MacHale Park and up in Healy Park if the county's hopes of making it to this year's National Football League final were to be realised

The wind blew hard and the rain came down in torrents at Austin Stack Park in Tralee but Mayo, taking the field in their distinctive new blue away strip, were equal to the conditions not to mention the challenge laid down by high-flying Kerry

Memories of the bright start Mayo made to this year's League campaign are starting to fade quickly, with those three opening wins now followed by back-to-back Division One defeats

Mayo were back at Croke Park on Saturday night for the first time since the 2017 All-Ireland final but it proved to be an unhappy return

Mayo's early season form continued its positive trend on Saturday night where victory over Cavan made it three League wins from three outings.

Mayo supporters become accustomed in recent years to enduring tough National League campaigns, where wins invariably prove to be hard-fought ones

The wind blew with considerable venom across MacHale Park yesterday evening, where sheets of driving rain and a biting cold added to difficult playing conditions

After months of waiting for the return of competitive action at inter-county level, the 2019 National Football League is set to get underway this coming weekend.

It turns out that penalty shootouts in Gaelic football are like buses - you wait forever for one to come along and then two arrive together.

The New Year started in dramatic fashion at Carrick-on-Shannon yesterday for Mayo's footballers

Chestnuts roasting by an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yuletide carols being sung by a choir ... and the Mayo News football podcast playing on your iPhone.

Everyone is counting down the days to Christmas at this stage and we're also chalking off the days ahead of the annual Club Stars banquet