Maybe Pat Spillane had a point.
No. No he didn’t.
Not in the first week of February with the Mayo crowd just back from holidays and Monaghan gunning mad for them. Pat Spillane did not have a point.
But there’s cause for concern for Mayo now with two league games remaining and, ironically, Kerry should be looking over their shoulders with serious worry too because they’re the ones who are in the direct firing line.
Cavan’s win on Sunday in Castlebar changes everything.
Mayo looking in big trouble nowhttps://t.co/wowhRO1P5K
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 19, 2017
When the masses were guilty of assuming the Ulster men were heading out of the top table politely alongside Roscommon, suddenly there are four teams in a real scrap for survival.
The Rossies are all but gone now but Cavan have given themselves a lifeline and ramped the pressure up on the guys ahead with a serious, serious win against Mayo. If Mattie McGleenan’s side had lost that fixture, Kerry would be four clear of the drop zone – Mayo, five – with just four points left for grabs but then Gearóid McKiernan inspired a famous victory and set up what will be a nerve-wrecking finale to Division One.
Cavan are one point adrift of safety now and Mayo’s run-in seems trickier.
REMAINING GAMES
Cavan: Kerry (h), Roscommon (a)
Mayo: Tyrone (a), Donegal (h)
Kerry: Cavan (a), Tyrone (h)
Roscommon head for Croke Park on Saturday night where anything but a win against Dublin will confirm their relegation to Division Two.
That would leave Cavan with a remaining game against a shaken Rossies outfit with nothing to play for. Mayo, meanwhile, have two Ulster sides gunning for a place in the top two and Stephen Rochford’s outfit are not enjoying contests with the northern province thus far having already lost to Monaghan and Cavan.
Cavan’s rise off their knees makes next week’s home clash with Kerry a humdinger. Win that and they’ll join the Kingdom on five points and could potentially sit ahead of the Connacht men who have a thankless task to Omagh to face on the same day.
Whatever way it pans out, it looks like Mayo are going to need another win to stay in the top division but getting change out of either Donegal and Tyrone – who have both already taken a point each off Dublin – will be easier said than done.
“The reality is that we put ourselves in a good position in the first half and again we’re being penalised for our own mistakes and we have to suck it up and get ourselves ready now for next week,” Stephen Rochford told Newstalk after the game.
The other reality is that this win will have Cavan bouncing into a crunch clash with Kerry supported by another big Breffni crowd with confidence high and a game with Roscommon to come – which, of course, is not a gimme by any means.
In one game though, their trajectory has completely changed whereas Mayo now have soul-searching to do having lost comprehensively to Dublin the last day out and now they’ve gone down to a Cavan side who hadn’t previously recorded one win.
Next up, two more Ulster outfits. They simply must respond because it’s do or die.
