just seen a piece on sky sports news about london in the connacht final, the child inside me found it very very funny.

COME ON LONDON



as for galway vs armagh, i fear very very badly for the body

It was over in the first half and then galway guaranteed they had no chance with two red cards. I had no idea they would be so poor.

As I said Galway are a running joke. Just didn't realise they would perform that bad. Some of the Galway play was absolutely comical.

Big win is the worst thing that could happen to Mayo. Hype will go into overdrive when in reality there is still major problems in their team but they did what they needed to do today.

Ive been told by football fanatics that galway almost never lose to mayo in salthill and that mayo hate playing there. On that basis im going to go for galway. It is the championship afterall and tradition still counts in the championship proper.

I think that Galway will win ! They might not win an all Ireland but they are still my county team and deserve support.

Hanley is missing I hear but Mayo have a few injuries too. Good luck to both teams, I hope that a team from Connacht goes all the way to Croker in September.

lol in that vein the worst moment for a sligo supporter is when they go ahead and then suddenly lose the head and don't know how to deal with the situation. Then they lose. Have seen connacht react that way too before. Crossing codes yet again barraclough has managed to get that attitude out of sligo rovers. /multisport hijack.

Borders no.2 wrote:

rossie wrote:
On another note, WILL GALWAY BATE MAYO?

The short answer is a definite NO!

U21 success a few weeks ago gives hope for the future for Galway. 2 or 3 years down the line I think Galway will be competitive again but at the moment the senior team is a bit of a running joke. Might win a game in the qualifers this year if the draw is handy (they have to win one at some stage!!)

Mayo's shortcomings were once again highlighted in the league semi-final against Dublin but there is no team in Connacht good enough to exploit Mayo's weaknesses. Mayo will walk back to Croke Park on the August bank holiday weekend and some time between there and the end of September it will all end in tears again unfortunately.

Mayo fans will be hugely in the majority next Sunday and anything less than a 6+ points win for Mayo would be hugely surprising imo.

The thing about Mayo and Galway in the Connacht Championship and it also relates to Connacht Champions at the AI knock-out games is that no matter how good one or the other side is, if they go on a bit of a run and become clear-cut favourites they are guaranteed to fail and usually more often before they're actually due to meet. Connacht team just don't do favourites tags at any sport well...

rossie wrote:
On another note, WILL GALWAY BATE MAYO?

The short answer is a definite NO!

U21 success a few weeks ago gives hope for the future for Galway. 2 or 3 years down the line I think Galway will be competitive again but at the moment the senior team is a bit of a running joke. Might win a game in the qualifers this year if the draw is handy (they have to win one at some stage!!)

Mayo's shortcomings were once again highlighted in the league semi-final against Dublin but there is no team in Connacht good enough to exploit Mayo's weaknesses. Mayo will walk back to Croke Park on the August bank holiday weekend and some time between there and the end of September it will all end in tears again unfortunately.

Mayo fans will be hugely in the majority next Sunday and anything less than a 6+ points win for Mayo would be hugely surprising imo.

Eamonn o hara has annouced his retirement from sligo football. Great player and servant. He helped put sligo football on the modern map. At least he won a connacht and should of hsd 2!
Best of luck in future eamonn.

On another note, WILL GALWAY BATE MAYO?

Don't know who did that but it is not good! Regrettable should be replaced with shameful. Any medal won with your county is to be kept and revered

i see a galway hurling panel member flogged his leinster shc medal for 570 euro on ebay this orning lol.

jarlath cloonan of the galway hurling board descrbed it as regrettable and stated matter would be investigated.
guess it shows what a leinster medal means to a connacht man!

Wasn't to be, pretty comprehensively beaten in the end. KK learned more from the last day and Galway failed to adjust their tactics. Gifting KK 1-1 straight after the early 2 goals really killed any Galway momentum dead. Some soft scores such as the one Tony Regan was waiting to come to him and the score where Tannian was hooked. In all fairness though like KK in the first game we were lucky to still be in contention at ht.

Were hard done by with the Donnellan goal with inconsistency from the ref and if Cannings shot had crept inside the post we'd have been level with the momentum behind us but KK countered and got a point and from the next puck out Donnellan was sent off. After that it was a procession for KK.

Even if the breaks had gone our way, Galway weren't at the same intensity today and KK were reinvigorated with Cody's changes working well. Overall much as it galls me the better team by far on the day won. It hurts this evening. Galway are a young team but aren't there yet. Need to find some new talent but the guts of a decent team is there. Still with KK going for their ten millionth all ireland and Tipp, Clare, Limerick, Cork and Dublin all likely to be stronger next year it won't be easy to get back to this stage but Galway have to take the positives from the year, find a few new players and a better plan B and try and find their way back in 2013.

Too many basic errors today but hopefully the experience of this campaign will stand to the Galway team and things look a lot brighter this evening that 14/15 months ago walking out of Tullamore & Thurles being hammered by average Dublin and Waterford sides.

Big Galway support today, lets hope to see at least a portion of them back following the team for the start of the league. Sad to see genuine supporters losing out on tickets to some less deserving people which is something that may need to be looked at if we're fortunate enough to get back to that stage again.

this should be a good game again, couldnt get a ticket this time. i guess cheaper tickets = more demand.
what ever way you look at it galway have the upper hand. played 2games and lost none.
if the same thing happens like the second half then they need to shoot from midfield rather than hitting them in and being swallowed up by kilkenny,. cody was also on the rocks 3weeks ago, stress.
ill go for a galway win, after all, weirder things has happened this weekend

Big blow if he is out. Flannery 1st sub goalkeeper is the u21 goalkeeper a bit small for this level and as in terms of puckouts as you mention. I don't know if Jamie Ryan is still on the panel. He'd have been next choice earlier in the year. Not a county goalkeeper from what I've seen of him. Hopefully Skehill will be fit. KK have Walter Walsh (ROUTE 1) and Cillian Buckley brought in so obviously wan't happy with his forwards the last day.


RTE going with the story but saying he's still likely to play

Galway goalkeeper James Skehill suffered a dislocated shoulder in his county's final training session before Sunday’s All Ireland Hurling final replay with Kilkenny, but still looks set to play in the final.

The Tribesmen's goalkeeper, who made a stunning save in the first final from Colin Fennelly, sustained the injury while diving for the ball in training.

Skehill was been taken to hospital for where doctors put the shoulder back into place and he is now considered likely to feature in Sunday's showpiece final.

James Skehill injured himself in training tonight and is out for sunday. Big blow both as a goalie but also his ability on the puckouts.
Does anyone know anything about the reserve keepers, who they are and are they any good?

Its low key enough as far as I see but there's a few days yet. The whole atmosphere is a bit surreal having a replayed final and so late in the year.

Still waiting to get word on a ticket, hopeful over the next couple of days, if not then I'd expect to get one up there on the day. County board have apparently been inundated with requests as more people want to go to this along with the vast majority of those there the last day and it seems a lot of other counties are holding the majority of their allocations with more neutrals wanting to see the replay.

Really while the county board did a good job the last day there needs to be a more equitable ticket system for the final when you hear of some fans who missed out last Sunday while others left as soon as the net billowed for Donegal's 2nd goal.

Both teams can perform better than they did the last day. Galway have every chance if they can once again avoid KK getting a Donegal like start. I'd expect a decisive victory one way or the other though. Hopefully to Galway.