New York vs Mayo: Mayo will return to championship action this weekend when they take on New York in the opening round of the Connacht Football Championship. The Exiles came within a hair of recording their first ever championship win last year when they faced Leitrim and James Horan will not want this game to be as close.
New York vs Mayo LIVE
Here is everything you need to know ahead of Sunday's game. The game is at 2.15 pm local time which means 7.15 pm Irish time. The match is being played in Gaelic Park in the Bronx in New York.
Mayo: Robert Hennelly; Chris Barrett, Brendan Harrison, Keith Higgins; Patrick Durcan (captain) Lee Keegan, James McCormack; Matthew Ruane, Aidan O’Shea; Evan Regan, Jason Doherty, Fergal Boland; Kevin McLoughlin, Darren Coen, James Carr
Mayo are heavy favourites for the clash. The perennial contenders are priced at 1/200 while New York are priced at 25/1/. A draw is priced at 50/1. Jason Doherty says that there are distractions that come with travelling abroad for the tie.
Mayo vs New York Fans watch today's game in Gaelic Park. The forward said: “I think now, going over this year with experience and maybe age, it would be certainly a lot easier to manage your energy.
“But for younger lads in the panel over for the first time to New York for a Championship game, potentially it could be a distraction. So it’s up to us older lads to kind of manage that energy because you easily could be distracted between the city, the shopping and so on.
“We’ll be over there probably a couple of days before so it’s trying to focus on performing against New York which you’re not used to, there’s not much familiarity there.
“We’ll know ourselves if we’re a percentage off across the board we can become ordinary very quickly.”
Mayo vs New York Fans watch today's game in Gaelic Park. The forward said: “I think now, going over this year with experience and maybe age, it would be certainly a lot easier to manage your energy.
“But for younger lads in the panel over for the first time to New York for a Championship game, potentially it could be a distraction. So it’s up to us older lads to kind of manage that energy because you easily could be distracted between the city, the shopping and so on.
“We’ll be over there probably a couple of days before so it’s trying to focus on performing against New York which you’re not used to, there’s not much familiarity there.
“We’ll know ourselves if we’re a percentage off across the board we can become ordinary very quickly.”
The end of New York City’s number 1 subway line runs adjacent to Gaelic Park’s clubhouse goals in the Bronx. The MTA’s train yard tracks split and wrap themselves around the storied venue, offering patrons a uniquely bland metallic facade once they pass through the green gates.
The similarly-coloured, American-style scoreboard gives the eyes some respite, yet the intermittent sounds of empty janky carriages coming to a slow, grinding halt is a rarity for any sports stadium.
